Air Soars (Book 4 of Avatar: the Last Dragon)
by Dapper Stormtrooper
Summary: Akodo Zuko has returned! After six long years of exile he has returned to the land of his birth, victorious at last! But not all is well in the Fire-Nation... Nothing is as he remembers it, and while he has been restored to his rightful place by Fire-Lord Ozai he cannot help but wonder if the choices that brought him here, were the right ones.
1. The Return

**A/N: The Following is a non-profit fan-based work of fiction. Full Disclaimer** **TM** **is available on the author page/series page. This is also (as should be obvious from the title) the fourth book in an ongoing series. You can probably make it through without reading previous works but… why would you want to?**

 **Don't worry, it'll be here when you get back.**

 **The chapter uses, where appropriate, dialog from S3E1 "The Awakening."**

 **Rated W, for Wrong**

 **Reader discretion is advised.**

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Chapter 1 "The Return"

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 **Early Autumn, year 11 in the reign of Fire-Lord Ozai**

Everything was wrong.

After everything Zuko had been through, everything he'd sacrificed, everything he'd given up, everyone he'd betrayed… it wasn't supposed to have been this way.

On the surface, he had everything he was supposed to want. He had come _home,_ been un-banished (if that was even a word) and had been heralded as a hero by general acclamation.

That last had been a bit of a shock.

Based on the evidence of the rather scathing attitude of the Admiralty, and the condescension on the part of its members, most notably Zhao, Zuko had assumed that everyone in the Fire-Nation _loathed_ him. He was the banished Prince, the exile, the shame of the nation. So, when he had been formally reintroduced to the populace of Otosan Uchi he had expected, at the most, polite cheering. Polite cheering overtop of quiet sniggering, possibly a thrown tomato-melon. He had _not_ expected the cheers to nearly deafen him, for the crowd to have placards bearing the phrase "Welcome Home," or for them to chant his name like they were at some sort of sporting event.

"Zu-Ko, Zu-Ko, Zu-Ko, ZU-KO!"

It was entirely unseemly.

"Zu-Ko, Zu-Ko, Zu-Ko, ZU-KO!"

 _Gratifying_ , but unseemly.

"What in Akodo's name was _that_?" Zuko said wonderingly after exiting the balcony which had overlooked the thronging masses.

"I _told_ you Zuko," Azula said coming up beside him, "I took care of _everything_."

He had been in the broadsheets.

In Zuko's long absence many things in the Fire-Nation had changed. His people had always been inventive and industrious and what they did not invent themselves they besieged, captured, and then improved upon dramatically. Most notably in this instance was the movable-type printing press. The principle had been, in typical Fire-Nation fashion, expanded upon and industrialized and was now used for the rapid distribution of information to the armed forces. The broadsheet was the new and improved _civilian_ version, a replacement for the Herald, or town-crier, and now for a single iron fu anyone could buy the one-page weekly paper and become versed in the latest happenings in the Fire-Nation, her Colonies and anywhere else in the world, provided of course that there was enough space, and enough interest in printing it.

The "Adventures of the Prince of Fire," had begun to appear in the national paper almost eighteen months ago and chronicled, albeit with an _excess_ of artistic license, Zuko's journeys around the world and the battles he had fought.

Interestingly the piece was actually billed as a fictional work detailing the life of an equally fictional "Prince Kozu" who, entirely by coincidence everyone was sure, was _also_ banished by his father, scarred, and given an insurmountable task to complete in order to redeem himself.

A number of relatively minor things had been widely exaggerated for narrative effect. Where Zuko had fought three bandits by himself in the northern colonies, Kozu had defeated an entire company. Where Zuko had led a raid on Kyoshi Island with two scant companies and an overexcited engineer in search of the Avatar, Kozu had besieged it with a fleet, and brought the village crashing down around the enemy's ears in an effort to make them surrender information about the whereabouts of the "staff of Yang-Chen" which was the item he had been bid to retrieve. Interspaced in between the exciting battle chapters were a great many broody passages that Zuko recognized as being based on his letters back home.

While ostensibly the piece was fictional no one in the Fire-Nation was stupid enough to not make the connection and now the general populace thought that Zuko was a lot more heroic than _he_ thought he was.

The author, a Kasai Ao, turned out to be nothing more than a non de plume for Azula herself, who had apparently undertaken the project as an exercise in the manipulation of public perception. By all accounts it was masterfully done; the general population had been given a hero which bolstered their morale and their love of country. Zuko himself found none of this obvious but Ty Lee, as excitable and talkative as he remembered, filled him in on the boat ride back to Otosan Uchi and presented him with a bound copy of the entire run as a belated birthday gift. Despite the artistic license, and the fact that Azula flatly denied _everything_ , Zuko found them very well written and, if not entirely truthful, then at the very least a compelling story. They at least killed time on the ride back home.

Back home… to see his father.

Zuko had more nervous standing before the massive doors to the throne room that he could ever recall having been before. He'd fought battles on sea and land. He'd faced down giant earthbending samurai, firebending masters, and the Avatar himself. He'd loved a woman, and the guilt of his betrayal still tore at him like serrated knives. Yet the power of those emotions were _nothing_ besides the total and absolute sickening dread he felt as he stood before the immense bronze doors.

He had hadn't been in this room since his _mistake._

Hadn't seen the Fire-Lord… his _father_ since he'd had both eyes.

Six years. Six long and bloody years.

His chest throbbed as stood before the doors, the ribs his father had broken ached as though the cracks had been reopened and the left half of his face tingled in phantom pain.

" _Courage is not the absence of fear,"_ Akodo had said. " _Only the truly foolish are unafraid. Courage is the execution of duty in spite of that fear, because of it. One cannot truly be brave without being afraid."_

Zuko opened the door… and did his best to BE brave.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

The throne room was as he remembered it, dark, ominous, and smelling faintly of sulfur. Bronze columns reflected the muted light of the great wall of fire that dominated the far side of the room. He had often dreamed of this very room, of his mistake, his _failure._ Awful dreams full of looming shadows and bitter laughter that could wake him from a dead sleep. The room stood empty now, except for the shadowy figure behind the curtain of flame, seated on the throne.

Zuko, still clad in the black armor his sister had given him, forced his back as straight as he could and strode two-thirds of the way towards the wall of flame. He dropped to one knee, his right hand a fist grounded on the floor. His left slid his wakizashi out of his belt, the only blade he carried today, and he placed it on the floor in front of him. His pose was that of a warrior paying homage, ready to pull the blade and end his own life at the word of his lord.

The figure behind the flames rose, and Zuko bowed his head lower. One did not look upon the Fire-Lord unless he bade you to do so. The figure passed through the curtain of flames as though it were just that, a curtain, and slowly made its way towards Zuko.

The Fire-Lord stopped only a few feet away.

"You have been away for a long time," Ozai said. His voice was just the same as it had been all those years ago, like sharpened steel drawn from silk. "I see the weight of your travels has changed you. You have…" Zuko felt his breath catch "… _redeemed_ yourself, my son. Welcome home."

" _My son." He called me his SON,_ Zuko thought in wonder. _He hasn't done that since…_

"I am… proud of you, Prince Zuko."

 _He's proud? But I didn't…_

"I am proud because you and your sister conquered Ba Sing Se," Ozai said, beginning to walk a slow circle around his son. "I am proud because when your loyalty was tested by your treacherous uncle you did the right thing and _captured_ the traitor. And I am proudest of all of your most legendary accomplishment: you slew the Avatar."

"W-what?" Zuko said, forgetting himself in his surprise.

 _Oh no. Don't you do it!_

"Azula told me everything. She said she was amazed and impressed at your power and ferocity at the moment of truth. Amazed at how-"

 _Don't do it! Don't you flaming DARE!_

"I regret, Majesty, that you have been misinformed." The words fell from Zuko's lips like sword strokes through reeds.

… _You really are an idiot._

"I. have. Been. _WHAT?_ " Ozai hissed, his voice like ice.

"I did not kill the Avatar, Majesty."

"He LIVES!?" If ice could burn.

"No Majesty, your honored daughter slew him."

As suddenly as it began Ozai's fury disappeared. "Why," he mused, "would she say that _you_ had done it?"

"For… advantage Majesty. To keep me in line should I stray too far from her control." It was the only thing that made sense given what Zuko knew about Scorpions. He certainly didn't blame her for it, it was simply the way she had been taught.

"Ah, and so you hope to dispel that advantage by confessing to me now."

"No Majesty, I only wish to begin again. To honorably serve your Majesty and the Crown-Princess again. I cannot do so if my return is based on a lie." Zuko was a Lion, and that was what HE had been taught.

"You… acknowledge your sister as my heir?" Ozai said the barest hint of surprise entering his voice.

"Yes, Majesty."

"You will not… _fight_ her for the throne?"

Zuko began to deny it, but hesitated. This was a _test_.

"Only if you wish it, Majesty."

"And _why_ would I do _that?_ "

"Because… it is _conflict_ that makes us stronger… _father._ "

"Good," Ozai drawled. " _Very_ good. I see that you _have_ learned much in your travels. Arise Akodo Zuko. Arise _Crown-Prince_ of the Fire-Nation."

 _What?!_

Zuko's eye was wide with a mix of horror and wonder as he gathered his wakizashi.

 _Azula is going to KILL me!_

He gained his feet and stared down at his father.

… _Down?_

He was taller than Ozai. Not by much, maybe a half-inch, but he was taller.

"Welcome home, my son," Ozai said with a smile.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"He did WHAT?!" Azula shouted, sitting bolt upright in her bedchamber.

"Azi…" Zuko said, a placating grimace on his face. He was still in his armor, having come directly from his late-night meeting with their father.

"NO! Don't you 'Azi' me! What in the burning ashy flaming pits of DESPAIR did you say to him!"

"Nothing!"

" _Nothing?_ "

"Well… I might have given you credit for killing the Avatar," Zuko said sheepishly.

"You WHAT!"

"I thought he was going to order me to commit seppuku, not name his heir!"

"You _unbelievable_ moron! After all I _did_ for you. After I gave you your chance and this, THIS, is how you repay me?"

"Damnit Azi, I thought I was helping! Showing you had control of the whole situation! That you were the one who should be-"

"Well, I'd thank you not to HELP me in the future, you idiot!"

"I don't understand. Why would he…" Zuko shook his head.

"Just get out Zuko. Get OUT of my room."

"Azi, I didn't intend for-"

"Do NOT call me that! What you _intended_ doesn't matter, it's what _happens_ that counts."

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Everything was wrong.

Zuko had come home, but found that he barely remembered to place. The rooms he had grown up in were less familiar to him than the cabin on his ship. He'd grown used to the stiffness of army cots and his naval bunk and the ground. His old bed made him feel like he was drowning as he sank into its softness. Even the bed in his old Earth-Kingdom apartment had been stiff and hard by comparison. He moved a blanket and pillow to the floor next to the fire and slept there instead. When he _managed_ to find sleep anyway.

Sleep came irregularly, and when it did it was fitful and plagued with vague dreams of the cave under Ba Sing Se. The look on his uncle's face somehow merged with Katara crying out in pain spiraling into the look on her face, a look of heartbreak and sorrow and just… _defeat_. He usually only managed an hour or two before he shot bolt upright, covered in sweat, his heart rate spiked and thrumming in his ears like a war drum.

Everything was wrong.

He had been restored by his father, resumed his _rightful_ place, but in doing so he had been alienated from his sister. Even with his protestations and denials the hard look in her eyes remained. He was an _opponent_ again. Whatever trust had been established between them was gone.

He was loved by his people, but even that was a lie or, at the very least, an exaggeration. Even if it hadn't been, he was cloistered away from them, alone in the palace. Alone in his rooms with only his thoughts.

At least he had a view.

Otosan Uchi was a beautiful city. Its black stone walls and red tile roofs gave off the impression of a bed of hot coals, broken up by the larger copper-covered government and religious buildings as they glinted in the sun, sharp and jagged like bursts of flame caught in motion. The city was built in the caldera of a massive, becalmed, if not entirely _dormant_ , volcano and from a distance, a person might be forgiven if they thought that the mountain was still alive. The idea that Akodo himself had conquered this volcano and then built the foundations of his city on its grave was both inspiring and a poignant reminder of what one could do if only they put their mind to it.

Especially if one was an Akodo.

The first two days after his reinstatement Zuko remained entirely in shock. The idea that he was home, victorious at last, didn't seem to penetrate his brain. He spent almost the entirety of those days in silent contemplation of the city he had not been allowed in for six years.

He spent the third day waiting for the other be sandal to drop. He became certain, down to his bones, that something was going to happen to destroy what little peace he had. He imagined a thousand different ways it could happen, from the realistic (assassins) to the farcical (the return of the dreaded Moon Wyrm.)

The fourth day, nothing happened at all.

The fifth was just the same.

On the sixth, he began to wonder if there wasn't something he should be _doing_. He had seen no one but the servants, no one had asked anything of him, he had done _nothing._ He asked one of the servants who brought his morning meal that question and was met with a wide-eyed horrified stare.

"I would never presume to tell His Highness what he should be doing!" the servant said, prostrating himself in abject terror.

Zuko dismissed him and went to stand at the window, arms behind his back.

 _Nobody is going to GIVE me something to do,_ he mused, once again contemplating the city below him. _I have to figure it out for myself. If for no other reason than to preserve my sanity._

He turned around to contemplate his chambers. They were lavishly appointed with red and gold tapestries, with works of art and decorative weapons all over the walls. Everything was chosen for pure beauty and aesthetic appeal, a harmonious alignment to bring peace to his by spirit and mind.

It _wasn't_ working.

He lifted one of the swords off the wall only to discover that it was simply a replica, silver paint over wood.

It was a _lie._

It, like his sudden rage, burst into flame without a thought.

When the servants returned the next day, they were greatest with the sight of their Prince in his bathrobe, covered in soot, staring out the window again, the entirety of his rooms bare of everything except for a single bag and a variety of scorch marks. Calmly, Zuko made his wishes known. He wanted a bed, not too soft. He wanted a desk and chairs. He wanted a bookshelf and he wanted racking for his armor and weapons. Anything else was pointless frippery.

Everything else was just a lie.

There would be no more attempts to dress him, he could dress himself thank you very much.

There would be no more fancy octopus-shark eye soup or blowfish-cat stinger aperitifs. There would be rice and egg for breakfast, NO lunch, and some variety of meat and rice for dinner. _Stew_ would be an acceptable variation.

He dismissed them, suggesting that the sooner these things were accomplished the better, and ordered them to summon his retainers.

Then he took a bath while the servants worked.

When he emerged, he found his rooms cleaned, scrubbed bare of soot and ash, and the servants attempting to manhandle a large old-fashioned futon through the door. Majors Rin and Haki, both of whom Zuko had promoted out of hand after Ba Sing Se, stood waiting at parade-rest in the middle of what had formerly been some kind of lounge room, next to a desk and chairs that the servants had managed to acquire on remarkably short notice.

Zuko found himself pleased by their efficiency.

"Sit," Zuko said, indicating the two chairs in front of the desk. He suited his own words by crossing around the desk and sitting in his desk chair, its higher back to the wall.

"What," Zuko began after they all had settled, "do princes _do_."

The two soldiers hesitated, sharing a look with one another.

"Highness…" Haki began, "we would not presume to-"

"STOW IT, major!" Zuko barked, startling the servants, and sending them fleeing from the room. "If I wanted genteel flattery and pointless ego stroking, I would have asked a _Scorpion._ What do princes DO?"

"Whatever they want, sir," Rin said.

"What I _want_ is to serve my people the best I can," Zuko said, sighing and leaning back in his chair. "I admit that I haven't the slightest idea of how to go about doing that."

"Permission to speak freely, sir."

"Rin, as long as it is just the three of us you will _always_ have permission."

"Well sir, my father always used to say that 'you don't know what you don't know, and it's the battle of a lifetime to figure out which is which.'"

Zuko looked at him blankly.

"It means you can't solve a problem if you don't know what the problem is, sir. So, what you want isn't too just 'help your people' you want to know what their problems are, where they are, and how big they are. _Then_ you can engage them."

"And how do we do that?"

"It's just another campaign, sir," Haki said breaking in. "We just need intelligence if we're going to engage the enemy. Then surround, contain, and destroy!"

 _Everything is so simple when you're a cavalryman,_ Zuko thought in mild amusement. _Still, he's not wrong._

"Seems doable," Zuko said aloud, nodding to himself. "Find me lieutenant Jee, gentlemen."

"What?" Haki sputtered, "I thought you hated that guy?"

"It turns out that he was a great deal better at his job than I had thought," Zuko said rising to his feet. "I owe him an apology, and quite possibly a promotion. Dismissed."

On the seventh day, Zuko left his rooms.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

A few days later found Lt Jee standing at the position of attention in front of Zuko's desk, spine as rigid as a board. He had the look of a man who believed death was only a few moments away but was prepared to face it with all the pride he could muster.

Zuko allowed him to sweat for a few moments as he silently perused Jee's personnel file.

It wasn't pretty.

Jee had, on no less than seven occasions, been cited for showing disrespect to a superior officer. The fact that he hadn't been executed, however, suggested that in each instance he had been _technically_ correct in whatever he had said. That he _had_ been correct hadn't prevented him from being passed over for promotion again and again. No matter the circumstances, being thirty and _still_ a simple lieutenant was not a good thing in the Fire-Nation army.

Zuko closed the file with a snap.

"It would seem you have the unfortunate habit of telling people things that they do not want to hear, lieutenant."

Jee showed unusual restraint and remained silent, his eyes unfocused and affixed on a point behind Zuko as the silence following the rhetorical question grew long.

"You will be interested to hear that I have had reports, from sources beyond reproach, that the Avatar… DID, in fact, _walk_ across the Great Divide."

Jee blinked.

"Furthermore, the Avatar _was_ present at the flooding of the village of Giapan," Zuko growled.

Jee somehow managed to look smug without changing his facial expression.

"So, you have my thanks, and my apology… _Captain._ "

Jee's mouth fell open in surprise.

"Sit," Zuko said, indicating the chairs before him. There were three now and Zuko himself rose and began to slowly pace back and forth behind his desk as Jee, possibly in a state of shock, sank into a seat.

"You now have a choice to make, captain," Zuko said, eyeing the man. "On the one hand, you can leave this room, justly rewarded for your service and go back to the regular army." Zuko pointedly glanced at the condemning personnel file on his desk indicating what he thought might happen in _that_ instance. "On the other hand, you can, this very day, swear fealty to _me_ , become my retainer, and find a place for yourself where _that_ ," Zuko gestured at the personnel file again, this time with a sneer, "will not follow you."

Jee went pale and opened his mouth to speak. "Permission to-"

" _Speak."_

"Why me, sir? You've read the file, obviously, you know I'm not good at holding my tongue. How am I going to be able to fit in as the retainer to a _Prince_?"

"I have not been back in the capital a month yet, captain, and already I have grown sick of people telling me the things they think I _want_ to hear instead of the things I _need_ to hear. I do not think YOU will have this problem." Zuko stopped his pacing and leaned over the desk towards Jee, resting on the tips of his fingers. "I will expect decorum in public and in formal situations. In _private_ I will expect you to tell me the unvarnished truth. No pandering, no wheedling, _no_ trying to curry favor.

"But… what do you want me to _do_?"

"We can discuss that _after_ you have made your choice."

Jee sat in the chair, mind obviously spinning, his hands clenching and unclenching unconsciously.

"…To the pits with it, I never liked the army anyway," he muttered to himself. He glanced up at Zuko, "Now? Or-"

"Right. Now."

Jee sighed and slipped out of the chair to one knee.

"I, Hosokawa Jee, samurai of the Hawk…"

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Despite the fact that Zuko, at present, had no army under his direct command he thought of the three men in front of him as his war council in the privacy of his own head. Matsu Haki, large, loud and bearded, a cavalryman and a proponent of simple, usually violent, solutions to every problem. Uesugi Rin, thin, greying and stoic, long-term infantry veteran and member of a Colonial samurai house. And now Hosokawa Jee, middling in height, an intelligence officer, malcontent and the son of a low-born magistrate.

Truly the _finest_ the Fire-Nation had to offer.

That said, Zuko found them to be highly useful and, if he was being honest, slightly comforting. He may not have had a simple goal anymore, the Avatar was dead, possibly forever, but at least he still had his soldiers.

Soldiers he could _trust._

He asked for their opinions and got them. Haki thought it best to simply go back into military service. The conquered territories were rife with banditry as well as the few last dregs of rebellion that would need to be put down eventually. Rin, when he could be compelled to provide his thoughts, was of a similar mind. Although he suggested that the Colonies specifically might deserve some more attention. They were often overlooked in favor of issues in the mainland and, as he pointed out, it was their iron and coal that had _won_ the war in truth.

Jee was of a different mind.

"If you leave the palace, you're just going to sacrifice the war for the smaller battles," he said scratching at his large sideburns.

"Explain," Zuko said tersely.

"Well, if there's going to be a problem, like a BIG problem, then headquarters is the place to hear about it. You can flit around all you like and try and _guess_ where things are going to crop up, but everything eventually makes it back the headquarters."

Rin glared at him pointedly.

"Uh… sir," Jee finished, somewhat sheepishly.

"Very well," Zuko said after a moment of consideration. "How do we proceed?"

"Well, if you want to find problems you just have to follow the money."

"Follow… the money?"

"Yeah, my father was a magistrate and he said that if you follow the money you always make your way back to the source of the crime… errr… problem."

"So, your suggestion is to 'follow the money?'" Haki said choking back skepticism.

"Well… look, I don't know anything about government," Jee said. "Who's the supply officer for… everything?"

"The Minister of the Treasury," Zuko supplied immediately.

"Well, look at it like this, I never met a supply officer, who was any good at their job anyway, who didn't know exactly where every bit and bob was, and was supposed to be. You want to find out where the unit is headed, where to get contraband, who's grifting on the side? You ask the supply guy. They know _everything_. If the unit is going to have a problem coming up, they're usually the first to know about it."

"Seems like a place to start," Zuko said, nodding approvingly. "Jee, take Haki with you and get copies of everything you can from the Ministry of the Treasury. Rin, you and I will go to the Royal Archives, I will need all the books on economics that we have." He grimaced, "I've got some _reading_ to do it seems."

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

After several weeks of reading, conversation, and a good deal of swearing, it was discovered that the Minister of the Treasury was NOT good at his job. Even on the rare occasions when he actually _did_ his job, it could not be said to be "good."

Zuko found the man, Ugawa Yokubo, relaxing in a private hot spring.

In the middle of the day.

On a _Tuesday_.

Zuko found the scream he made as the water rapidly increased in temperature most gratifying.

"Good afternoon, Minister Ugawa!" Zuko shouted over the high-pitched shrieks the man emitted as he lept from the near boiling water. "I had hoped to find you hard at work in your _office,_ but I suppose this will have to DO."

Zuko had always considered himself somewhat inept at manipulation and polite discourse, Azula was the "people person" after all, but over the course of the last few weeks he had found that government officials tended to cave to barked orders and angry glares far more readily than they did when he simply tried to be polite. So, he'd resolved to treat people like he would any other soldier under his command. Servants were unruly privates fresh off the boat, more in need of a firm hand and clear guidance than any actual disciplinary measures. Government clerks and bureaucrats were overworked sergeants, who needed simple direct statements and commands with as little wiggle room as possible. The higher ministers, he had discovered, were like junior officers who had been caught sneaking away from their paperwork one too many times, into town or the geisha tent.

Minister Ugawa _hadn't_ done his paperwork. Probably didn't even know he _had_ paperwork.

"I was wondering, Minister, if you would care to _comment_ on the state of the nation's finances?" Zuko said, an entirely unfriendly grin on his face as Yokubo hopped from foot to foot in pain.

"W-w-w-what? Your Highness! I don't-" the little fat man, now the pinkish color of lightly cooked squirrel-salmon, gaped and sputtered like a fish out of water.

 _What an appropriate metaphor,_ Zuko thought.

"Specifically," he continued aloud, "I would like to discuss how something as simple as basic accounting seems to have been forgotten under your watch."

"Basic… what?"

 _Oh… this stupid ash-licker._

"I will try to use smaller words, _Minister._ Where," Zuko began to advance on the shivering naked man, growling in fury, "is. My. Father's. MONEY?"

"Wh-what? Your Highness, the treasury is-"

"Short! The treasury is SHORT, by tens of _thousands_ of koku. A simple accounting of funds, something you are required by law to do every new moon I might add, reveals that the funds contained within the treasury fall terribly short of the numbers contained in your published reports. Where is the _money_ minister?"

"Your Highness, the intricacies of the Treasury are-"

"BEYOND you I imagine," Zuko barked. "Revenues have fallen in every conceivable category imaginable. Our Nation's economy is flagging, and you sit here in a _hot spring_ and publish reports calling it 'healthy.' We are about as healthy as an arrow through the neck!" Zuko beckoned with his hand, never taking his eye from Yokubo and Jee, grinning broadly at the trembling minister, came forward holding an ornate hourglass. "You have _five_ minutes-" Zuko said as he flipped the glass- "to explain yourself. Starting NOW."

Zuko could have given him five _years_ , it wouldn't have been enough.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

The Daijo-kan was less than pleased.

The ministers that made up the Fire-Lord's Daijo-kan were selected by the sovereign himself, and from what Zuko could tell they were more upset that someone would _dare_ to behead one of their number than they were about the fact the Yokubo had embezzled enough money to build a dozen battleships.

Not that there was much they could do about it, the man was _already_ dead, and Zuko presented documents, written by mid-level functionaries, explaining the dangerous situation the Fire-Nation was in economically. The ex-minister's seal and signature were clearly present on the documents, indicating that he _had_ seen, if not actually read or understood, them. These, laid beside his own flatly contradictory reports to the Daijo-kan, were entirely too damning. And if _that_ had not been enough, the massive amount of wealth contained in the Ugawa household should have been enough to make the truth plain.

"I will NOT tolerate thieves at the heart of His Majesty's government," Zuko snarled at the assembled ministers.

"Your father-"

"If you think that my _father_ of all people has any tolerance for people who _steal_ from him, you are sorely mistaken."

"It is simply not _done,_ Prince Zuko. A man of Lord Ugawa's stature must be-"

" _Should_ have been," Zuko said with a sneer.

"… _Should_ have been treated with more tact and deference. We know that you have been away from civilized society for some time, Highness, but…"

There was a great deal of quibbling and prevarication on the part of the remaining ministers, and it went on for some time before they moved on to other business. It was clear that the only person whose opinion mattered was the Fire-Lord and Azula herself acted as his messenger later that same day.

"You can't just run around beheading people, Zuzu. You're just lucky that father wasn't overly fond of that little toad to begin with."

"He was a THIEF, Azula! Are saying that-"

"What I'm saying, _dear_ brother, is that you need to learn to be more circumspect. _Father_ is the only one who gets to make decisions like that, and unless you want to be the-" she paused making a brief mental calculation- " _sixteenth_ Crown-Prince to be thrown in the Spire, alongside uncle, I suggest you calm down."

"Then what am I supposed to-"

"I would _never_ presume to instruct the _Crown-Prince,_ " Azula said turning around on her heel and walking away.

Somehow, perhaps by dint being the person responsible for his death, the paperwork and messages intended to Minister of the Treasury found themselves re-routed to Zuko the following day. The position _was_ open, and in an effort to continue to "follow the money" as Jee had said, Zuko accepted the role of Minster de facto of the Treasury; by right of _conquest_.

His findings quickly grew from merely unpleasant to disastrous.

The entire nation seemed to stand on the brink of collapse, held aloft only by the recent infusion of gold plundered from the Earth-King's private vaults and the new taxes being paid by Gaoling. According to the books and scrolls he had gotten from the archives these factors were also being aided and abetted by the fact that no one outside the Treasury seemed to _know_ how bad things really were. The books spoke a great deal about perception shaping commerce and the "demand" for goods.

Zuko spent a great deal of time simply trying to digest the rather unusual concepts in those books, but he kept at in his normal doggedly persistent manner. Lacking any better ideas, he also spent a large portion of time looking over scroll after scroll of financial data that his underlings provided him, looking for incongruities, places where things were _wrong_. He found them, and when he pulled on those strings it was as though he was unraveling a ball of evil yarn. Places, names, and dates revealed themselves to him, and he dutifully wrote them down.

He was making a list. And the people whose names were on it were about to become _very_ unhappy.

Almost as unhappy as he was.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Zuko was pretty sure he had everyone fooled.

He attacked his new duties with vigor and determination. He talked to people, made plans, schemed plots, and practiced bending and swordsmanship. He read reports, did paperwork, and sent missives. He behaved as a prince and samurai should.

And then the Sun would set and all he could feel was shame.

All he could hear was a dull ringing.

All he could see was _her._ Her face a ruin of shock and horror and grief.

He accepted the shame. Meditated on it. Bathed himself in it. Asked himself, over and over again, if everything he had done was worth it.

It was a question that had no answer.

Everything was wrong.

* * *

 **A/N: Greeting weary travelers and WELCOME to Book 4: Air Soars. If, for some impossible reason, this is your first time reading an "Avatar: the Last Dragon" book… well… honestly, you should go back and read the others. They are pretty good and at least 30-some people agree!**

 **So, I have a confession to make. The last 3 books have been a little different than this one. Namely, in that they were all, in their entirety, in a second draft BEFORE they were published. This book… is not (/winces). I admit that school and this work (putting things into their third, publishable, draft) has consumed more of my time than I had thought.**

 **So, what does this mean to YOU, the loyal reader?**

 **Hopefully nothing.**

 **I've got about 16 chapters already in second draft, that's currently about 85k words. So, with any luck, I will be able to bang out those last few chapters over the 4 or so months that it takes me to publish. With any luck, you will see absolutely no interruption of service or of quality. BUT, should I fail in this regard, well, I'll tell you, and chapters might have to slow down a bit. However, I promise, here and now, that this will NEVER be a dead fic. I've GOT the conclusion, it's just the last adjoining chapters that have so far eluded me.**

 **Anyway, enough of that, now is the time for…**

 **META-BITS!**

 **Britishness:** **So, I'm an American, and so when we think of monarchy we, like a large part of the world turn our thoughts to old Papa England. As much as we like brewing our teas in Boston harbor England is foundational to our culture. I have in this, and the next few, chapters endeavored to make things LESS British. However, THAT is where my brain goes when I think of court drama and politics in a monarchical system. So bear with me. It is also important to note, as I think I have before, that this world while BASED on a romanticized 9** **th** **century Japan is more in what we would consider post the age of sail. Late 19** **th** **century if the ships and the stylings of Legend of Korra are anything to go by. I got rid of the tanks BUT we still are on the cusp of electricity. Just something to keep in mind here.**

 **Captain America:** **"What? I thought Zuko was an analog for Darth Vader," you say! Well he is, but Azula is also using him as a Morale puppet, just like Steve Rogers was in the first movie. While people** _ **aren't**_ **buying Fire-Nation war-bonds, it is still important, for the purposes of putting down civil unrest, for people to have heroes. Azula has done just that to Zuko. I ALSO think that Azula has a creative impulse that has, until now, had no place to express itself. So yes, Azula writes Zuko fanfic. Gods help me. She also, as may become clear in the next chapter, is a Maiko shipper.  
**

 **Not that there is anything wrong with that.**

 **No lies:** **So I'm sitting here, watching the actual canon show and boom, we see a Zuko who is devious and allows his father to believe that he killed the Avatar. Didn't sit well with me for this. So, Zuko does, what he believes, is the right thing and tells his liege lord the truth. Good idea, bad idea, you be the judge. But it is also important to note that Zuko,** _ **does not KNOW**_ **about the spirit water in this version. He has absolutely no reason to believe that Aang survived. Which somewhat, unfortunately, means that we will not be seeing Mssr. Sparky-sparky-boom-boom man. Pity.**

 **Azula's punishment:** **"So, wait," you say, "why did Ozai make Zuko his heir when he knows he** _ **didn't**_ **kill Aang?" Well, if you think that Ozai doesn't know what** _ **Azula**_ **has been up to then you've sorely underestimated him. Not only is he punishing her for being overly sentimental towards her brother, something he feels is probably her** _ **last**_ **weakness, but he is also dividing them. Not only does he** _ **really**_ **believe that it is conflict that makes them stronger, he knows that if they were to work together… overthrowing him would be** _ **easy.**_ **As an evil lord o' super-mega-evil he's going to have paranoid tendencies. Having his two ass-kicking children, one of whom he has specifically trained to sniff out weaknesses and USE them, on good terms is not something he can allow. He still VERY much intends for Azula to be the next Fire-Lord, but he is using this as a teaching tool. "Don't be too nice, or it will bite you in the ass."**

 **Zutara:** **I put this here to give you hope. This is STILL a Zutara work and this, Season 3, is where Zutara lives. So many times I read fiction where Katara is just so blindingly angry at Zuko for his betrayal under Ba Sing Se. In the canon, WHAT betrayal was that? Like many, I felt that there was really NO reason for him to choose Aang's side at that point. You can not betray a side you never joined. Was there some feelings and possibly some sexual tension in the caves, yeah obviously. Does that make a guy betray his family and join his enemy? Absolutely not.**

 **Anyway, NOW when Zuko does make his way over to the other side Katara has a straight up LEGITIMATE excuse for the anger. He really HAS betrayed her, and dealing with that, boy are those chapters** _ **fun**_ **.**

 **Hope you'll stick around for it!**

 **Remember no matter how long ago my works were published I live feedback. Even if it's 2099 and you're reading this feel free to comment/review should your robot overlords allow it. My century old-ass will pop right out of my hospital bed and do a happy dance!**

 **.**

 **.**

 **NEXT WEEK on a very special "Avatar: The Last Dragon"...  
**

 **Zuko fights CRIME!**

 **TUNE IN. Same Zuko time, Same Zuko channel!**

 **Original post date: 2 December 2018**


	2. The Painted Lady

**A/N:** **The Following is Rated C; for Circumspect.**

 **It contains dialog, where appropriate, from S3E3 "The Painted Lady."**

 **Reader discretion is advised.**

* * *

Chapter 2 "The Painted Lady."

* * *

 **Autumn, year 11 in the reign of Fire-Lord Ozai**

Something was off.

Zuko had been pouring over expense reports, wading through yet another scroll full of columns and numbers, when he noticed a disturbance, a subtle change in his sense of the room. His office was covered in maps, charts, tables, and graphs now. The bookshelf behind him, once bare, was now full to the very top. Full of scrolls of law, books of economics, texts pertaining to warfare, including _two_ copies of _LEADERSHIP_ (the newer one containing a rather scathing appendix concerning what Zuko had been pleased to discover was called the "Zhao Debacle.")

Zuko _knew_ the room, was familiar with its details and with the _feel_ of the space. Something was _off_. Something was out of place. Some _one_ was here.

"Hello, Mai," Zuko rasped, looking up from his paperwork.

The young woman seemingly detached herself from nowhere and glided across the room to stand in front of his desk.

 _Must have come in through the window,_ Zuko thought.

The two of them considered one another for a long moment.

Zuko was surprised at how much, and how little, she seemed to have changed. She was taller of course, and she had, in his estimation, become even more beautiful. Classically beautiful; slender, pale skin, dark black hair, and tawny eyes. What _hadn't_ changed was the look of complete and utter disdain she seemed to have for everything. The look of a queen deigning to lower herself to address the common folk. She had looked at everyone that way when they were younger, even him, and he was a prince.

He'd found it rather charming a long time ago.

Zuko put down his ink brush and steepled his fingers, unconsciously shifting to make sure the long knife he had strapped to his leg was still there.

"Is there something I can do for you, Mai?"

 _I will have to fling myself backwards, the arms of this chair make dodging to the side impractical._

"Your sister sent me," Mai said, her voice as still and inflectionless as her posture.

" _Did_ she?"

 _Note to self: start locking the windows as NINJAS are much better climbers than I thought._

"She wants…" Mai trailed off, her face and voice remained as calm and placid as a frozen pound, but Zuko could see her hands tense ever so slightly.

 _Second note to self: If I survive this, maybe start wearing armor… at ALL TIMES._

Mai took a deep breath and continued. "She wants… me to seduce you."

Zuko stared for a moment, then blinked. Then he started laughing, deep whole-hearted _incredulous_ laughter, probably the first time he'd laughed in months.

Mai tucked her hands into her adjoining sleeves and rolled her eyes.

"You _cannot_ be serious?" Zuko managed in between heaving laughter.

"It's not like she _knows,_ Zuko."

"But… _why?"_ Zuko motioned to the chairs in front of him, asking her to sit as the last of his laughter gradually died away.

"She remembers that you used to have a crush on me," Mai said, gracefully folding herself into a chair. "She assumes I can use that to my advantage in getting close to you."

"Again. WHY?"

"So I can _spy_ on you." Mai said it as though the answer was so obvious it caused her physical pain to have to spell it out for him.

"If Azula has questions, she only has to as-"

"You know that's not how this works, not how she thinks," Mai drawled.

Zuko sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Do you have any suggestions as to how we deal with this?"

"…No."

"Oh, _very_ helpful _,_ Mai," Zuko said sarcastically. "…How _would_ you have done it?" he said after a moment.

"What?"

"Seduced me, I mean. How would you have done it had you not been… had I not known what I know about you?"

"There are a variety of drugs which would create the desired effect, and you are much too trusting to have avoided them," she said flatly, seeming somehow entirely unembarrassed by the confession.

"And you? Are there drugs that would have given _you_ the desired effect?"

"…we don't always get the things we want, Zuko."

"Mai…"

" _Don't_ Zuko. I am _not_ one of your 'problems' to solve."

Zuko raised his lone eyebrow.

"Your retainers have all the informational discipline of a gaggle of fishwives," Mai said, the barest hint of amusement coloring her dry monotone. "That's most likely why I was sent here, so that Azula can keep tabs on your 'projects.'"

"And will _Ty_ be-"

"Ikoma Ty Lee is NOT a factor," Mai snapped, the venom now _very_ audible in her voice.

They sat in silence for a long pause. "…It was the circus, wasn't it?"

Mai said nothing, which as good as a yes from her.

"Unfortunate," Zuko rumbled, "I always liked the idea of my two best friends getting along."

"We're not your friends, Zuko."

"No? And yet here you are _telling_ me you were sent to spy on me. Not very sneaky."

"Maybe it is. Maybe I'm giving you a false rational so that you don't go looking for the real one."

Zuko sighed again and rubbed his face with his hands. "I'm not going to argue with you. You're smarter than me and will win." He rose from his chair and began slowly pacing back and forth considering the problem. Mai remained perfectly still, only her eyes tracking him.

"Fine," Zuko said after a few minutes of consideration, "consider me seduced."

"…What?"

"It's very simple, tell Azula that you were successful. Which, for her purposes at least, is true. You will tell me what she wants to know, and I will give you the answers she wants."

"I am NOT going to spy on your sister. She's much better at this than you, and-"

"Did I _say_ spy on her?" Zuko snapped. "No. You will tell me what she wants to _know_ ; the questions at least will give me some idea of what's she's thinking."

"And… if I refuse?"

"Then you are just going to have to go back and tell her you _failed_ to seduce me," Zuko said darkly, leaning over the desk at her, resting his weight on his fingertips. "I am sure _that_ conversation will go over well. She will have questions, very _pointed_ questions, and as you said she is _much_ better at this than I am."

Mai nodded jerkily.

"I do have one request, however. I would appreciate it if you did not lie to me anymore."

"I didn't."

"…How long did it take you to figure out that I had no dead-drops and no way of blackmailing you?"

Mai scoffed in a rare display of mirth. "About a day and a half. You really should learn how to-"

"And yet you wrote me a letter, once a month, for the better part of three years."

Mai blinked in surprise. Half from his presumption of interrupting her, half from the realization that she _had_ in fact done that.

"So don't lie and say we're not friends. You are pretty much the only friend I have."

Mai considered him for a moment, then rolled her eyes. "Must you always be so melodramatic with everything?"

"Must you always pretend that you don't care about things?"

"…It's safer that way. For me."

There were a lot of things that Zuko would have liked to tell her then. That he didn't care about who she was sleeping with, that she should forget the whole thing and just go back to New Ozai to be with her family, that he wasn't being melodramatic, she was really the only person he could really talk to who wasn't bound to him with oaths of fealty.

But he said none of them, she probably wouldn't have believed him anyway.

 _Fucking Scorpions._

Instead, the two of them sat in something shockingly close to comfortable silence as Zuko started reading the papers in front of him again while Mai quietly began sharpening knife after knife she pulled out of her sleeves.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Zuko was having to learn to become more circumspect.

He found that he wasn't fond of it.

After he had executed the old minister of the treasury, the way forward had become much more difficult. Once it became common knowledge that he was on the prowl for embezzling and corruption the honorless leeches that seemed to infest the Fire-Nation's government had learned to become more cautious, more conservative, and scurried out of his sight like roach-worms in a recently lit room.

He still _knew_ who the guilty parties were, he had a list, a very LONG list, but he couldn't move against them now without a nearly overwhelming amount of evidence. Gathering that evidence, fortunately, was a job that Jee _excelling_ at.

But, infuriatingly, it was also much slower. Gathering evidence, taking statements, dragging the obviously guilty before the Fire-Lord and the Daijo-Kan and fending off their feeble excuses and outright lies.

It also had a _failure rate_ , a fact which enraged Zuko to no end. Knowing that incompetents and outright thieves would not only be allowed to continue to keep breathing, but in some cases would be allowed to keep their jobs and positions, had him gnashing his teeth. His first impulse was to simply challenge all of them to Agni Kai, but hesitated in doing so before his father.

He remembered what had happened _last_ time.

His arrangement with Mai, however, was actually proving rather helpful to him. She would appear, silent and sudden as always, and he would rant about whatever honorless pile of filth had most recently evaded justice. Mai, her tone somehow flat and yet acerbic and sarcastic, would interject comments. These comments, whether intentionally or not, were beginning to give him a better insight into his father's motivations. They were both Scorpions after all.

The key was the appearance of control.

At all times the monarch had to be seen to be in control of the situation. Zuko could not simply do what his heart told him was the right thing, namely setting a large number of people on fire, without allowing his father to be the one to approve it. So, in the future, when Zuko found himself thwarted in the normal methods of justice he would raise his eye to the shadowy silent figure behind the wall of flames.

Most of the time he would be met with nothing, complete stillness, and he would grit his teeth and sit back down to fume in silence. But on _good_ days the Fire-Lord would give the tiniest nod of his head, and Zuko would let the challenge slip, savoring the sight of the blood draining from the guilty party's face.

The fact that his father attended each and every one of his fire duels also filled him with a heady sense of satisfaction.

Soshi Arashi was one of the lucky ones.

The Soshi family was one of the major aristocratic families of the Fire-Nation, and Soshi Arashi was the family head, _Lord_ Soshi himself. This made him, for all intents and purposes, _untouchable._ Prosecution, let alone an Agni Kai, against a family head could only be done with the most serious of commitment and forethought as civil war could easily erupt at the mere _suggestion_ of such a thing.

That didn't change the fact that Zuko wanted him _dead_.

The numbers on the scrolls didn't lie, Lord Soshi was dirty. His province was in the Fire-Islands of the eastern sea and the taxes and tariffs he reported were so ludicrously undervalued that, had they been true, he would have had trouble feeding _himself_ , let alone an entire province.

Despite Jee's ability, he continually found nothing with regard to Soshi's dealings, and Zuko was forced to attempt to whittle away at the man by attacking his lower level functionaries.

Again, it was Mai who came up with a solution. She entered his room, much like some sort of incredibly self-possessed house-cat, and deposited a report from the river village of Jang Hui on his desk. The village was just down river from the major industrial complex that Lord Soshi had built into the side of his fortress… and it had been _attacked_.

Attacked, by a _spirit_.

Spiritual negligence was a crime as well. Preserving the peace in their areas of control was one of the first and foremost _duties_ of a Lord of the Land.

Whatever had prompted this spirit's attack _might_ be traced back to Lord Soshi.

Zuko decided to pay the village a visit.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

As Zuko finished packing his rucksack for the journey he heard a most unusual sound.

While it was not law, it was _custom,_ for the palace to remain as quiet as possible. Servants communicated in hushed whispers, conversations held between ministers and other functionaries were kept to a minimum as they walked the halls.

So, the sounds of a _baby's_ cries were quite distinct in the normally vast and repressive silence.

Zuko poked his head out of his door to find Rin and _Bo_ having a muted argument as Bo tried futilely to silence the squalling infant in her arms.

"...far too dangerous," Bo hissed as Zuko quietly approached them.

Rin's eyes, quickly growing panicked, swept back and forth between his angry wife and his liege lord as Zuko approached.

"A problem?" Zuko rumbled as he stood next to the two of them.

"No," Bo said quickly, not taking her eyes from her husband. "Hold her please," she said as she thrust the still crying baby at Zuko.

Startled, Zuko found himself obliging her. Rin goggled at him as Bo continued quietly berating him, now gesturing wildly with both hands.

Zuko sighed, it was very much in keeping with Bo's character to remain focused on her target instead of her immediate surroundings.

 _Best artillerist in the fleet,_ he thought, not without a small measure of pride.

 _So..._ he thought lamely as he held the child up for inspection, _THIS is a baby._

Zuko was amazed at how remarkably loud she was for such a tiny creature. Loud and... squishy. Zuko, relying mostly on instinct, softly bounced the little girl in his arms and her eyes popped open revealing bright hazel eyes. Her crying cut off immediately, and she looked at Zuko in a most puzzled fashion.

Zuko regarded her, equally puzzled, as his experience with children was precisely zero.

"So... what is _your_ destiny _?"_ Zuko asked the infant quietly.

The argument between the girl's parents seemed to have stopped and Zuko glanced up to see Bo's wide eyes, the same bright hazel as the infants, regard him with mortification.

"Highness... I..." Bo began, her voice still hoarse and whispery.

"What is the problem, lieutenant?" Zuko said still idly bouncing the little girl.

"…I want to come with you," she said, squaring her shoulders in determination.

"You think it... _wise_ to bring an infant on a warship?" Zuko said, his voice darkening slightly.

"No Highness, but I don't want... You know, Rin broke four of his ribs the last time he went out on a mission without me?" She very pointedly didn't mention that it was _Zuko_ who had broken those ribs.

"And you assume that, had you been there..."

"He would have never even been _in_ that situation had I been there," she said quietly, but with a protective ferocity.

Rin rolled his eyes from behind his wife.

Zuko just snorted in amusement. "Her name?" he said indicating the small girl in his arms.

"Kyoshi," Bo said, sounding immensely pleased.

Zuko gave Rin a look, which the older man only shrugged at.

"He's already missed his daughter's birth, galivanting around the Earth-Kingdom. I would rather he didn't miss the rest of her life as well," Bo said quietly, smiling at her daughter.

Zuko considered the little girl named for a previous incarnation of the Avatar.

"...If it looks even _remotely_ dangerous, you're both staying on the ship. No more sneaking into the assault team, Bo. I've neither the time, nor the patience, for your obstinance anymore."

"Yes, SIR!" Bo shouted, then clapped her hands over her mouth as her voice echoed through the palace halls.

Zuko shook his head and handed the little girl back to her mother.

"And Bo?... bring your biwa. I'm sure Haki and Taro will be most pleased to join you for music night."

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Zuko had been putting this off.

He knew that eventually he would have to face it, honor demanded it of him, but he had put it off for months.

He would have to go to the Spire.

After some consideration, Zuko was surprised at the number of things he did not remember about Otosan Uchi. It made sense, of course, he had been consumed with training for his gempukku during his childhood and the space of time between the end of that and his banishment was barely even three months. Hardly enough time to become acquainted with a city as big as the capital of the Fire-Nation.

Not that the Spire was in the city. You couldn't put a thing like that inside the caldera itself.

The Spire was a prison. A prison for samurai.

Maybe it was just his idle comment about music night, maybe it was his lack of certainty about his current path. Maybe he just missed the man.

Zuko needed to go and see his uncle.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"Oh, you want to see that filthy old madman? Sure Highness, right this way," the guard at the entrance of the maximum-security level said with a genial, yet malicious, grin.

Zuko followed behind him, his face a neutral mask as they ascended to the highest level of the Spire.

"Here you go Highness. Don't see why you're bothering though. He's mad; disgusting old traitor. Honorless as they come, and he doesn't speak."

"What is his name?" Zuko asked, his voice carefully controlled.

"What? The prisoner? Here now, I thought you said you wanted to see your-"

"What. is. his. NAME?"

"Ah-Akodo Iroh?" the guard said nervously.

Zuko moved suddenly, unexpectedly, and grabbed the guard by his collar, lifting and slamming him into the wall outside his uncle's cell door.

"Yes, AKODO Iroh. And the next time I hear you speak about a member of my family that way I will PUT YOUR FUCKING HEAD ON A SPIKE!" Zuko roared.

With that, he grabbed the keys off the man's belt and dropped him like the sack of refuse he was. He unlocked the door and strode into the cell.

It stank.

It smelled of human waste and sweat and the sickly-sweet smell of rot, like dead flowers.

A pile of grey rags shifted on a straw mat as Zuko moved into the room. His eyes darted around the space, taking in the broken pottery of ruined cookware, the filthy rags his uncle wore, even the… feces he had apparently smeared on one of the walls. Iroh had even torn out one of his fingernails, scratching at the stone walls of his cell.

Zuko, lone eye wide, backed out of the room.

"Get me the _warden_ ," Zuko snarled to the man laying on the ground, his eye still locked on the grey mound of rags in the cell. "Right. NOW."

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

The warden had been summoned, Zuko had almost killed him, but the man had prostrated himself and said in simple calm words the truth Zuko needed, if not _wanted_ , to hear.

They had done nothing.

Iroh had not spoken a word since he had been brought here, and while the warden had been given no instructions regarding his personal comfort, he had served under General Iroh in the eastern campaigns and had a great deal of respect for him. The look on his face, of utter bewilderment at Iroh's condition, convinced Zuko just as much as all the other words he spoke.

The only conclusion was that this was _Zuko's_ fault.

Zuko sat in the filthy cell for over an hour just staring at the listless creature behind bars that had once been his uncle, just trying to wrap his head around it, trying to figure out what to _say._

 _How is this possible? He was just fine not even not even three months ago! Perhaps the madness…_ but that's couldn't have been right. All the madness Zuko had been familiar with in regard to his family was more in the vein of psychopathic fury, not listless withdrawal.

 _Perhaps father's refusal to allow him to commit seppuku was the final straw? Maybe this has been coming on for years?_

It just hurt seeing his uncle like this. The man had always been so full of _life_ , so exuberant.

 _Although, to be fair, most of that was just bluster so that nobody…_

Iroh had told Zuko that he liked to overemphasize many of his more ridiculous traits so that no one would come running to him to take over when they didn't like the commands that Zuko gave. Being a tad ridiculous had its merits, he had said, and not being taken seriously had won him more victories than he had ever won on the battlefield.

 _Nobody takes a madman seriously._

If he wasn't a threat, nobody would bother with him overmuch.

 _It's a RUSE!_

Zuko stared at his uncle, the man remained motionless.

"I suppose me coming here does not help you overmuch," Zuko said quietly.

Iroh remained motionless, yet Zuko could _feel_ the tension in him, even if he gave no outward sign of it.

"I am… sorry, uncle," Zuko said. "I am sorry for… for everything." The quiet words began to tumble from his mouth, as close to pleading as a man like Zuko could get. "I'm going to fix it, uncle. Things aren't the way I remember them but… they CAN be. I will _fix_ it. I won't let everything we've done be in vain. I WON'T." He rose to his feet and turned to the door to leave. "Thank you, uncle… for everything."

Even if Zuko hadn't been outside the cell he wouldn't have been able to see the ghost of a smile that flicked across his uncle's face.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

The bosun's whistle blew; low, high and then low again, as Zuko came aboard the HMS Victory. Her assembled crew snapped to attention and then bowed, many of them with entirely non-regulation grins on their faces.

"Welcome aboard, Your Highness," Lieutenant-Commander Dosei Taro said, bowing deeply, right fist in left hand.

"Commander," Zuko said tersely, returning the bow to a much smaller degree.

The crew was dismissed and moved to get the ship underway with all the efficiency and rapidity that Zuko expected of any crew under his former subordinate's command.

"I would offer you a tour, Highness, but you already know her almost as well as I do," Taro said as they both moved towards the bridge.

"I highly doubt that," Zuko said. "As it is, I will need to speak with you privately, as soon as is reasonably possible."

Taro stutter-stepped, almost falling before the hatchway to the command tower.

"Of… of course Highness, I stand ready for your judgment."

 _My what?_

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Haki couldn't stop laughing.

"It was a perfectly reasonable assumption," Taro said mildly.

"Reasonable? We never even-" Haki continued laughing.

Taro seemed mildly embarrassed as the five of them sat around the table of the Victory's briefing room.

"It's not _that_ funny," Rin said quietly. " _You_ thought he was going to kill you as well."

"Yeah, but that's cause I actually scored a HIT!" Haki snorted. "Taro, all you did was drive the flaming BOAT!"

"Still, I was actively engaged in hunting his Highness down. And again-" he turned to Zuko, who was watching the exchange with a mild exasperation- "I must apologize Highness. Your sister-"

"Is… _was_ the Crown-Princess. Your loyalty is commendable," Zuko said. "Which is why I extended the offer in the first place."

That Taro had been totally and earnestly prepared to commit seppuku had thrown Zuko off his stride quite a bit. But after a moment of startled silence, he managed to growl out a negation and offer Taro another spot on his "war council."

Taro had simply blinked once behind his spectacles and then, remaining in the same position on his knees, sworn fealty.

Not _exactly_ how Zuko had thought it would go, but still acceptable.

After some light conversation and a few brief orders about the upcoming operation, Zuko withdrew to the cabin that had been set aside for him.

The briefing room just wasn't the same, either because it reminded him of the ship he had lost or, more likely, because his uncle wasn't there, puttering around and forcing his tea on everyone.

Zuko's several days of transit were mostly occupied with reading _"Metaphysical Encounters and the Lessons of Such."_ It was NOT an easy read. The tome was as thick as Zuko's bicep and somehow the author, a long-dead Kitsu scholar, made something as awe-inspiring as encountering the spirits sound more boring that the expense reports that Zuko was used to reading.

There were several important parts of course. There was the ritual formulaic greetings for spirits, to assuage them and prevent their ire from immediately falling on the speaker. There was the warning to never try to bargain with them, for any deal struck would not only be mystically enforced, but it also would never conclude in the way one thought it would. Then there was a chapter on preventative measures, on how to avoid spirit occupations to begin with.

Generally speaking, the book said that the spirits became unsettled when the natural would fell out of balance or when whatever metaphysical phenomenon they represented was threatened. Tree spirits didn't care for lumbering activities, war spirits hated peace talks.

Much to Zuko's amusement the book actually had a chapter on the _Grey Ghost_ , or at least the legendary figure he had been mistaken for on more than one occasion. Spirits who took the shape of humans, much like the one at Jang Hui was purported to be, were said to be exceedingly complex and, in fact, could be the most dangerous. They could pass for human very easily, often causing you to make some blunder by which they could entrap you. Often times they appeared different to each individual viewer, often being perceived as a person one already knew; a father, a daughter, an enemy or a lover. Their mood, their _aspect_ , was reflected in whatever face the viewer saw.

Zuko admitted himself curious as to what this "Painted Lady" would look like.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

 _Circumspect,_ Zuko thought, _adjective: careful to consider all circumstances and possible consequences: PRUDENT… you IDIOT._

Zuko hadn't given much thought to leaving the palace. Or at least not as much thought as he probably should have.

 _Prudent: adjective: characterized by, arising from, or showing a marked wisdom or judiciousness, shrewd management of practical affairs or marked by circumspection: DISCREET… you MORON._

He had grown used to simply going where he needed to be, showing up, and then shouting and glaring until he got what he wanted.

 _Discreet: adjective: having or showing discernment or good judgment in conduct and especially in speech: PRUDENT… again… you IDIOT._

That sort of behavior was NOT going to work with Lord Soshi.

The man had been _prepared_ for his arrival, down to the hour. It was obvious, in hindsight, that the movements of the Crown-Prince would be of note to the important people of the Nation. Especially given that Zuko was on what was generally being referred to as "the warpath."

So now Zuko, having run headlong into a prepared ambush, was entirely trapped.

Soshi had never been a military man, he was a politician. Nevertheless, he had, with a skill that would have impressed even the most stoic of the members of the War College, set a trap for Zuko.

A trap of _courtesy_.

The Fire-Nation, being a country filled to the brim with warriors, all of whom carried a several-foot-long razor on them at all times, had long ago established ironclad rules of propriety and decorum when dealing with one's social equals. Generally, Zuko didn't need to bother with that overmuch, the number of people that fell into a category which might be termed his equal, was incredibly small. There was the Fire-Lord, his superior, to be shown deference and obedience at all times, there was his other immediate family (currently only Iroh and Azula), for whom decorum was only necessary in the public spaces, and there was the other ninety-nine out of one hundred people in the Fire-Nation who were subordinate to him and subject to his normal brusque demeanor.

Lord Soshi, and the other Lords of the Land, were the remaining one percent.

And so Zuko, and Haki, found themselves quite thoroughly trapped by polite distraction after polite distraction.

Still cursing himself for his own lack of circumspection, Zuko found very little time to curse himself for his other ignorance. Matsu Haki, while seemingly a simple ordinary soldier was, in fact, the _grandson_ of the current family head. The Matsu clan was vast, and there were many branch families that shared the same family name, but _Haki_ was the eldest child of the eldest child of Matsu Saeko, the ninety-three-year-old family head. As such, he was nominally in line to take on that role one day and thus constrained by the same social obligations.

Unsurprisingly, he bore them even less stoically than Zuko but, as dictated by tradition, was given a bit more leeway. The Matsu family was actually a several millennia old offshoot of Akodo, having requested permission to form their own family out of restlessness and hot-temper. It had been granted, and those traits, stubbornness, ill-temper, and restlessness had become marks of pride to them.

Haki was a very typical Matsu.

And Lord Soshi was the _perfect_ host, never allowing his guests to become bored or idle, never allowing them a moment alone where they might begin to ask the very pointed questions Zuko wanted to ask. Formal tea ceremony, official tours of the more scenic areas of the province (nowhere NEAR Jang Hui), a firebending display by Lord Soshi's eldest daughter; Soshi Arashi was well entrenched with polite distraction after polite distraction.

Zuko was forced to adapt.

"With your permission, I should like to visit the steel manufactory, Lord Soshi," Zuko said, employing the exceptionally formal language he despised, on the fourth morning of his entrapment.

Arashi gave Zuko one of his now familiar side-long glances as he sipped at a cup of tea. "Surely Highness, a factory is no place for one of Akodo's blood? Observation of simple drudge work is most assuredly _beneath_ you?" That had been his way, never outright refusing a request, simply asking pointed, somewhat disparaging, questions.

"Your steelwork is quite famous, my Lord. During my time with the Navy, it was my honor to command _two_ of His Majesty's ships that contained a great deal of your steel in their construction," Zuko said restraining a grimace. "Surely you will allow me to honor their _memory_ by visiting the place of their birth?"

Arashi's eyes narrowed in a minute expression of discontent. The appeal Zuko made was _intentionally_ reminiscent of a request to visit the home of a passed-on fighting companion, or the forge where one's ancestral blade was created. It was not a request easily denied, yet it was plain Lord Soshi wanted to do so anyway.

"This… this might be arranged, Highness. I regret however that it will most likely be very dull indeed. As well, the factory is far too dangerous to visit during the day, while it is in major operations… we should have to go at _night_. I would be loath to disrupt your sleeping habits, Highness. As your host, I would not wish to-"

"And I would not wish overburden my host with such a personal request," Zuko said, pouncing on Arashi's words. "And so, I must insist that you remain behind that you might find your rest and continue to care for your _other_ guest. A simple escort will be enough to-"

"Uh... I was hoping I could go TOO!" Haki said quickly, seizing on an opportunity to escape.

Zuko glared at him.

"Or… not," Haki said, wincing and visibly deflating.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

All subterfuge aside Zuko was actually looking forward to seeing the steel plant. He had read a great deal about them, about molten iron cascading in rivers, about heat so powerful it put the very volcanoes to shame.

Regretfully, he didn't get to see it in action.

Not a half mile from the factory the earth shook with the sound of many tremendous explosions, lighting up the pre-dawn sky with bursts of orange and red.

Zuko, and the retinue of guards Lord Soshi has sent with him "for his own protection," broke into a run.

The factory seemed to be half underwater when he arrived. Pipes and cabling lay wrecked and devastated all about as the night-shift workers struggled to put out the fires and extract their fellows from the wreckage.

"What in the Sun's name happened here?" Zuko said as he reached a knot of what, based on the uniforms, were the factory's civilian management.

"The flaming Painted Lady!" one of them shouted, eyes wide with superstitious dread. "She flaming well brought the whole river in through the south wall! The whole factory…" he grasped his hair by the roots, "it's _ruined_." He began to weep as though his favorite pet had just been run over by a carriage and was eventually led away by one of his fellows.

Zuko spent the next hour organizing the workers that remained and ensuring that everyone was accounted for. Remarkably, while many had become trapped as the explosions had ruined hallways and dislodged ductwork, no one had died, a fact that Zuko attributed to the providence of the spirits.

He was in the midst of hearing yet another account of how the Painted Lady had savaged the blast furnace when Jee found him.

"Sir… you need to come with me," Jee said quietly.

After it had become clear that Zuko was to be trapped in the Soshi household, he had instructed Jee to slip away to see what he could discover. Zuko, sending a letter via messenger hawk, had arranged to meet him at the factory that night to discover what he had learned.

Now Jee led him away from the ruined building to a rowboat on the riverside, to take him to Jang Hui.

The village made the ruined factory look sturdy and well put together.

Zuko was horrified. It reminded him of nothing so much as the stinking squalor of the lower ring of Ba Sing Se… but _worse._ At least the earthers had had access to clean drinking water and law enforcement as opposed to the fetid muck that surrounded this village.

Jang Hui was a river village built out of a multitude of wooden docks on the site of one of the fiercest battles in modern warfare, the battle of Water's Fall. Here the previous chieftain of the Unicorn, Moto Chagatai, had fought the armies of Fire-Lord Azulon to a standstill. Only by the timely arrival of Zuko's uncle Iroh, and the wave of reinforcements under his command, was the battle, and possibly Azulon's life, saved.

Azulon had been so impressed with the Unicorn, and with their chieftain's prowess and ferocity in battle, he had offered them an honorable armistice which had lasted until shortly after Ozai's ascension.

Now the river in which that great and important battle had been fought was filthy. The fisheries of the village contained only a scant amount of incredibly pungent fish, covered in grey-brown muck. The villagers themselves were largely ill and filthy as well; yet they were all in surprisingly high spirits.

The Painted Lady had come.

Jee introduced Zuko to the village headman, an obviously brain-damaged man who thought he was more than one person, and he (or rather his multitude of "brothers") showed Zuko to the town center where the villagers had erected a statue to the spirit who had conjured them food and medicine, as well as healed a great many of the sick and dying.

The villagers were venerating the Painted Lady in thanks for her care and protection and, for the most part, Zuko was inclined to agree with them.

If not for the importance of the steel mill.

Almost four out of every ten tons of steel produced in the Fire-Nation were made here at Jang Hui. It's location, near to the coal and iron reserves in the colonies, gave it an exceptional advantage in terms of cost efficiency. There was likely not a single warship that had been commissioned in the last five years that did not have _some_ Jang Hui steel in its makeup.

And yet the headman (or possibly one of his brothers, Zuko had lost track of which one he was supposed to be at the moment) said that the river had been fishable until a few years ago until Lord Soshi had built the factory right at the edge of the water.

 _It will have to be shut down,_ Zuko thought. Not only were the villagers here dying, but angering a powerful spirit such as the Painted Lady was sure to have consequences. She very likely could place a curse on every ounce of steel that came out of the place. Shugenja would have to be sent for and the river ritually cleansed which Zuko's book had suggested would take a great deal of time and resources.

In the meantime, the villagers would have to be moved to a safer location. Lord Soshi should have done so as soon as the waters of the river turned brown, if not sooner. And the loss of production of such a major industrial center was going to be devastating to the Fire-Nation's economy. Zuko was already getting a headache trying to figure out ways and means of redistributing productive capacity so as to not see his country go down in flames.

So, understandably, Zuko was not in the best mood when more soldiers came down from the factory.

Soldiers who apparently had no idea he was there.

Zuko, curious as to their purpose, allowed their leader, a lieutenant Mung as Jee told him, to gather the villagers before him, to bluster and make threats… until the man started lighting _buildings_ on fire.

"We are going to cleanse the world of this wretched village!" he had shouted as he bent a gout of fire at the nearest hut.

Fire, which Zuko seized and banished with the motion of a single hand as he stalked through the crowd of villagers towards the fool.

Finally, something he could beat into submission.

"Who in the Sun's name are-" Mung cut himself off, practically swallowing his own tongue as he stared goggle-eyed at Zuko's identifying scar and armor.

"What, in ashy burning PITS OF DESPAIR, do you think you are _doing_?" Zuko hissed, his yellow eye fixed on the bulky soldier.

"Sire! Uh- Sir! That… well… This village, sir- your Highness- it's… uh…"

"Starving?" Zuko spat, closing in on the man, "Impoverished? Disease-ridden? All things that you should have been PREVENTING?"

Mung took a moment to gather his wits before attempting to reply again. "Highness, this is a town of liars and thieves! They steal our food, our medicine, and they attack our factory and try to kill my men! They must be-"

"Attack the factory? Do you see _weapons_ here, lieutenant? Fighting men? These people couldn't even fight a cold, let alone a fortified steel mill. And as for food and medicine," Zuko moved into the man personal space and snarled at him, "you had a _duty_ to these people. They _eat_ before you do, if they are sick you _give_ them medicine. This. is. the. FIRE-NATION! Not some barbarian back-corner of the world!"

"Highness, with all due respect, if they didn't attack the factory then who did?"

"I assume you've seen the statue in the middle of town?" Zuko said stepping aside and gesturing at the carved wooden figure that was behind the kneeling mass of peasants.

Mung heaved an irritated sigh "There is NO Painted Lady," he snapped mostly at the kneeling villagers.

As if summoned by his words an eerie, howling, moan began to emanate from down the river. Zuko, enraged as he had been, only now noticed that the entire vista in front of him had been blotted out by a veritable wall of fog which advanced towards the village at a steady, if unnatural, pace.

"She's cooomming," a child's voice rang out in a sing-song from somewhere in the crowd of villagers. Zuko's hackles rose off his neck in superstitious dread.

A deep stomping rumble began to emanate from inside the fog, as though a giant were advancing on the town. For all Zuko could see it might have been so.

As the wall of fog hit the town, it began to circle around it in an unnatural fashion, as though Jang Hui was in the eye of some bizarre mid-morning storm. From somewhere deep within the mists Zuko swore he heard the mournful cry of the shakuhachi flute playing some lament.

The stomping cut off and the fog parted just enough for the assembled Fire-Nationers to see a lone figure in red ragged robes and a wide veiled hat standing in the middle of the river.

Suddenly it burst forward, propelled at impossible speeds across the fetid surface of the river towards the village, a plume of river muck rising up behind it. As it reached the edge of the village it lept, impossibly high, and touched down at the edge of the dock without a sound.

"Do… _Something_!" Mung shouted at his subordinates, grabbing them by arms and trying to push them forward.

"Stand DOWN, lieutenant!" Zuko barked as he moved past them. "Stand down all of you. I will handle th-"

Standing before him, wide terrible grey-blue eyes locked on him behind a veil, was Katara.

Zuko went stock still as her eyes fell on him and the temperature of the air around him seemed to drop directly into the heart of a winter's storm as she slowly moved towards him.

 _This… this is IMPOSSIBLE! She can't be HERE! Why would she be here! Spirits preserve-_ his thoughts cut off as he remembered the book about spirits he had read before his arrival.

 _They look how they want, to communicate their mood. This… is a very ANGRY spirit._

There were forms for dealing with the spirits of the Fire-Nation, long ago set down and codified by scholars and shugenja and, as a matter of course, they were reprinted in the book Zuko had just read. Despite that, Zuko found himself having trouble remembering them as the spirt slowly drew closer and the temperature around him continued to drop; the water under the dock he stood upon flash freezing to ice.

"H-h-hon-n-n-ored sp-p-irit," Zuko's teeth were chattering in the frozen air and he couldn't even _begin_ to think about using heart of fire to warm himself. "I b-b-bid you welcome t-t-t-t-"

The Painted Lady didn't seem to care much for his speech. With a gesture, the entire river rose in a foul putrid wall behind her, ready to come crashing down on him.

 _Well… if this is how it's going to happen… at least it looks like her._

"Highness?" a voice called from behind him. Zuko managed to turn his head and saw Bo, holding her little Kyoshi in her arms, not five feet behind him.

"D-damnit it, Bo! I t-t-told you-"

"Maybe… you should let me talk to her, sir? I've heard that… female spirits prefer supplications from women."

"W-what? I didn't read anything about th-" Zuko's head whipped around to see the wall of water gently sink back into the river. Apparently, the Painted Lady agreed with Bo's assessment.

"Honored spirit? I bid you welcome to our lands," Bo said smoothly. As she walked forward the unnatural chill seemed to drop away.

"Maybe you could clear the dock, sir?" Bo said, not unkindly. "Get the villagers out of harm's way?"

Zuko nodded jerkily and gladly backed away from the spirit wearing his ex-girlfriend's countenance. As he did the fog rolled in, thick and grey, obscuring them from his sight.

"Everybody back in your homes! We will deal with this," Zuko shouted. He turned to face Lt Mung, a snarl splitting his face. "And as for YOU-"

"Highness, please? I was only following orders!" Mung said, falling to his knees and groveling, his eyes wide in fear of both Zuko _and_ the angry spirit he now knew to be real.

"Orders? _Whose_ orders?"

"Lord Soshi! He said to burn the villagers out, so that they would stop attacking!"

" _Did_ he?" Zuko said, his snarl turning into a triumphant smile. "I seems that you will be returning with me to Otosan Uchi, lieutenant. I think the Daijo-Kan would be very interested to hear about how you were ordered to kill His Majesty's subjects."

Subjects that, by law, were the sole responsibility and possession of the Fire-Lord.

 _I have you now,_ Zuko thought.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

The will of the Painted Lady, as communicated through Uesugi Bo, was simple. Why it had taken the better part of an hour to communicate was a bit of a mystery but hardly important in the grand scheme of things.

The river should be cleaned, the factory shut down, and villagers left in peace. Given that the factory was already entirely non-functional these were things that Zuko approved of wholeheartedly.

The High Court's findings were… adequate. Unfortunately, Lord Soshi was acquitted of the crime of assault on his Majesty's subjects, the situation turning into a simple case of Lt Mung's word against his. While Mung's testimony was not enough to earn Zuko the privilege of putting Soshi's head on a spike, it _was_ enough to find him _very_ guilty of spiritual negligence. He was officially censured, his factory shut down permanently, and the cost of restoring the river to its previous state his penalty.

Despite these victories, Zuko's mood was black. The conditions in Jang Hui had unsettled him, and on the way back to the capital he had taken stock of every village and city he passed.

The Fire-Nation was _dying._

Zuko could reach no other conclusion based on the evidence of his eyes. The numbers on the scrolls in his office were one matter; the homelessness, disease, and starvation among the people of fire was another.

Zuko began to work himself ragged after Lord Soshi's trial, no longer simply focused on finding corruption, but on finding anything, any way he could save money and give it back to the people. Their safety was his duty after all. He had betrayed and abandoned the only woman he had ever loved for his people, and seeing her face staring him down in Jang Hui had reminded him of that very forcibly.

 _I can FIX this,_ he thought to himself as he spent another sleepless night reading, writing, and planning. _I will fix my nation… or I will DIE trying._

Anything less was unworthy of _her._

* * *

 **A/N:** **Hello fan-fic-fans! Welcome back the out designated Zuko time! I hope you've enjoyed this weeks selection but, as always, if you** _ **didn't**_ **please feel free to PM and tell me why. After all, how am I supposed to get better if I don't know what I'm doing wrong… or RIGHT! Feel free to review/comment about THAT too. My sensitive artist soul(/maximum sarcasm drive engaged)** _ **craves**_ **your approval.**

 **All that said, I hope you enjoyed my version of the Painted Lady. Honestly, I wish I had been able to find a way to give K and Z another throw down, but I like the way this turned out. Actually, for some reason, the idea for THIS chapter was the one that got itself lodged so thoroughly in my head that I even** _ **started**_ **on this project. You would think that it would be more epic, being the cornerstone of the original idea… oh well, it is what it is.**

 **META-B** _ **IIIIIIITS **_**(/screaming rock solo)**

 **Dirty Water:** **also as this chapter was foundational to the entire work, so too was a little song by the name of "Dirty Water," by the Foo Fighters. While I make no claim that this chapter is** _ **based**_ **on the song, the tone of the whole story I've told, its sort of rising power, is. If nothing else listening to this song on my commute while thinking about this crazy fusion idea I had gave me the wherewithal to stop** _ **thinking**_ **about it, and really do it. So, thank you, Dave Grohl. Thank you very much.**

 **Maiko** **: So, let me be clear here, because I've heard rumors about the vitriol of this (I guess** _ **my**_ **) fandom. I** _ **like**_ **Maiko. I think that it could work out. I understand, from what I've heard of the comics that it doesn't though. So, anyway is what I'm trying to say is that although** _ **Azula**_ **happens to be a Maiko shipper on deck in this work, it is not intended as a disparaging comment. So, yeah, that's what I think I happening here. Azula is trying to set up her brother with her best friend in her usual tactless, bossy manner that she has when dealing with the two of them. She doesn't** _ **really**_ **need a spy** _ **that**_ **close to her brother, but it makes a compelling excuse.**

 **Unfortunately for that plan, Mai is gay. (Just putting that in there in case some of you haven't read book 1)**

 **However, at this moment in time, Mai is good for Zuko. She brings a much needed outside perspective that Zuko has not had a great deal of exposure too, and as I have said many times before this Zuko is a guy who learns through experience. A little enforced political drama is just a learning experience for him.  
**

 **Rin and Bo:** **lots of interesting shenanigans going on in the background here. Bo is an aristocrat, a member of the mainline Bayushi (reads as founders of the** _ **Scorpion**_ **dojo) family and despite that is an entirely forthright human and a Lion to boot. Rin is basically the lowest rung on the samurai totem-pole a non-bender from the colonies and yet has married WAY above his station and is now a high-ranking officer and retainer to the heir to the throne. Apparently, I have a habit for writing about odd-balls. Also, I couldn't NOT name their daughter Kyoshi, it's just too cute.  
**

 **Iroh** **: So, I've sort of turned the nob to 11 on Iroh's imprisonment. Mostly for time, I think. I didn't think this Zuko was the guy that would go frequently to his uncle's cell when he** _ **knows**_ **the man isn't going to talk to him. So, yes, in case it was unclear, Iroh IS faking. It's a rope-a-dope, a ruse, a feint. And considering that Ozai probably was probably evil-giggling in his evil pointy shoes about it, it is a successful one. He is in violation of evil overlord rule #3 "My noble half-brother whose throne I usurped will be killed, not kept anonymously imprisoned in a forgotten cell of my dungeon." While Iroh isn't his half-brother the rest is still VERY applicable.  
**

 **Jang Hui** **: shock of shocks, when Zuko actually looks around at his own nation he finds out that it's not doing so hot (hot? Get it?). Kinda makes him look like a jackass, when looking back at all the EK villages he sneered at doesn't it? That is the entire point. Zuko, is growing up, discarding the childish fantasies he had and really coming to grips with the way the world, and the FN, are. Yet ANOTHER reason he HAD to come home.  
**

 **The Painted Lady** **: Yes, it's Katara. I threw all that other face changey stuff in there to give Zuko an out. And by OUT I mean a way which he walks away from this situation **_**alive**_ **. Katara is pissed, and seriously on the brink of murder. Luckily Bo is there, avec baby. That calms her right hell down. I like to think that, while their interaction was limited, Bo and Katara hit it off during the events of "The White Lotus Tile." Bo, being a smart woman (who despite being personally forthright grew up among a family of manipulators) plays off the** _ **Spirit**_ **angle nicely and defuses the situation.** _ **She**_ **knows it's Katara, as there is no reason that** _ **she**_ **should be seeing her face there and then. So they spend an hour kibitzing behind a wall of fog, doing that normal girl chat thing while Bo calms her down from murderous rage. I imagine it was a good time.**

 **That's IT. No more. I could introspect for DAYS but that's not actually getting this published is it?**

 **I hope you enjoyed this chapter and will continue to do so in the future.**

 **Remember to like/kudos/subscribe/comment/review/tell-a-friend!**

 **.**

 **.**

 **NEXT WEEK on a very special "Avatar: The Last Dragon"...**

 **Zuko is forced to use his vacation time, and sets things on fire.**

 **TUNE IN. Same Zuko time, Same Zuko channel!**

 **Original post date: 9 December 2018**


	3. The Beach

**A/N:** **The Following is Rated N; for normal.**

 **It contains dialog, where appropriate, from S3E5 "The Beach."**

 **Reader discretion is advised.**

* * *

Chapter 3 "The Beach"

* * *

 **Early Winter, year 11 in the reign of Fire-Lord Ozai**

"I'm so excited to spend all this time on Ember Island," Ty Lee chirped from the fore of the little pleasure yacht as it cut through the azure coastal waters. "It's going to be _great_ to hang out on the beach and do nothing."

"This… is a WASTE of time," Zuko growled.

It had been several hectic weeks since Zuko had returned from Jang Hui. Weeks of planning and shouting and running about putting out fires, both literal and figurative. The Fire-Lord had been _less_ than pleased by the disruption of steel from the region but, mercifully, did not seem to blame Zuko for it. After the Zhao debacle, the Fire-Nation had been very forcibly reminded that the spirit world was still a powerful force to be reckoned with and those that invoked its ire, just a Lord Soshi had done, received little to no mercy.

Zuko's father had actually seemed rather pleased when Zuko had submitted a proposal to the Daijo-Kan which would redistribute steel production to other regions of the Fire-Nation, and result in a much smaller loss of productivity that was previously expected. Zuko had also rather forcibly placed some wordage in the proposal regarding waste products with relation to local populations.

In short, don't dump where people _eat._

Any who did so would now be _personally_ liable for the costs of any ensuing clean up, saving the National Treasury a great deal, and hopefully preventing a mass extinction event amongst the lower classes.

Unfortunately, the cost of steel _would_ be going up a fair amount, putting further strain on an already fatigued economy, but Zuko was hopeful that it wouldn't last long. The war was _over_ after all _,_ and once the Northern Fleet recovered from their losses, the demand for steel and its price _should_ drop accordingly.

Zuko estimated he had slept no more than twenty-four hours in the entirety of the last two weeks. He had put in every ounce of effort he had to make sure that the proposal was flawless and that the sudden loss of such a major industrial center wouldn't destroy the Fire-Nation economically.

Now, however, his father had sent him _away_. Sent him to Ember Island to "relax." Zuko assumed he meant it as a reward for all his hard work, but a small part of him was sent into a frothing panic at the idea that he was being banished, _again._ The larger part of him was simply incredibly nervous about leaving the capital for any stretch of time. He had things to DO, things to FIX, and the idea that he could _relax_ was farcical.

Though his face remained locked in the scowling stoic mask he normally wore, Zuko only maintained his very tenuous grip on calm by continually reminding himself that _Azula_ was coming along too. He was certain that their father wouldn't banish _both_ of them.

Certainly not at the same time at least.

Azula, leaning on the rail of the ship next to Ty Lee smirked at her older brother's enormous scowl. "Lighten up, Zuzu. If you don't take a break now and then, you'll work yourself into an early grave. And wouldn't _that_ be a shame?" Her smirk widened. "I bet Mai might become even _more_ depressing, if that's even possible."

Mai, from her position at Zuko's side, one arm threaded through his, simply rolled her eyes.

Which was the _other_ thing that was making Zuko scowl. The two of them had, for some time now, been pretending to be in a relationship. Between Mai's surreptitious nature, and public displays of affection being beneath the dignity of the Crown-Prince, the two had had to do very little acting to maintain the ruse. They had attended a few public functions together, Zuko had publicly bought her a new set of shuriken (which she had previously picked out herself), and occasionally Mai spent the night in his bed (Zuko himself was still sleeping on the floor next to the fire in any case). By those few simple expedients, Azula, and in fact the entirety of the now ecstatic Fire-Nation, was convinced that Zuko and Mai were a couple.

In a relaxed setting such as this, however, even more deception would be required.

It made Zuko uncomfortable.

Mai, of course, managed the situation flawlessly, with the same unbroken poise and grace she seemed to manage everything. As she put it, she had been preparing for this moment ever since she and Zuko had been thirteen and his kiss had done nothing but make her wonder what Ty Lee was up to.

Zuko wasn't sure whether to be offended by that, or just amused.

The plan (and Zuko had to consciously restrain himself from referring to it as an operational order) was for the four of them to visit Ember Island, incognito, and to stay at the small cottage owned by Zuko and Azula's great-aunts Lo and Li. They would have no responsibilities there, and the absence of the royal guard would allow them to move about with relative anonymity, so they could, as Ty Lee put it, "catch some sun."

The weather was beautiful as they arrived at the island and Lo and Li seemed in much better spirits than the last time Zuko had seen them. The two of them were practically _smiling_ as the four teenagers stepped off the yacht on to the private docks and then followed the ancient crones up the sandy steps to the tiny cottage that they lived in most of the year.

The inside of which was _pink._

 _Virulently_ pink.

Ty Lee loved it of course, and was heard to brightly exclaim over the entire sea-themed motif. Mai, a hint of venom in her voice, said it looked like the beach had thrown up all over the inside, which caused Ty Lee to wilt significantly.

Zuko managed to restrain himself from sighing in exasperation. In the few months since he had been home, he had _yet_ to see Mai miss an opportunity to throw a barb Ty Lee's way. While he did understand the pain of a bad break up, he was beginning to find Mai's constant acid tiring.

Lo and Li seemed to be a great deal less rigid and formal here on Ember Island. They prattled on, bustling about as their younger guests deposited their belongings in the guest rooms, picking up the other's sentences as they spoke. They served tea and small rice balls as they waxed poetic about the island, its tranquility, and its spiritual blessings.

"The beach has a special way…" one began "…of smoothing even the most ragged edges," the other finished.

Azula yawned in obvious derision.

With that, the ancient women rose, in sync as always, and announced that it was time to "hit" the beach. Much to Zuko's horror, they began to disrobe _right there_ in front of him. Fortunately, Mai saved him from the oncoming horrors by the simple expedient of rapidly covering his lone eye with the back of her hand.

 _Spirits, do I owe her for that,_ Zuko thought as the six of them made their way through the small island town towards the beach.

Which was entirely too crowded for Zuko's tastes.

Ember Island was one of the most popular winter tourist spots in the entire nation and most of the aristocracy had winter homes there, in part to escape the chill that suffused the high mountain city of Otosan Uchi, and in part as a showcase of their own personal wealth. Despite that, Zuko detected a hint of austerity on the walk from his aunts' cottage. In his youth, he remembered the main streets of the local village as a constant riot of color and an almost continuous festival-like atmosphere. Now the streets were quiet, the carts with food and drink were few and far between.

That said, the beach itself was still entirely too crowded for Zuko's taste and his hands began to ich at his lack of armor and weaponry.

The custom of Ember Island was to not advertise one's family and dynastic legacy while there. It was a place of relaxation, and tradition dictated that politics, such as they were, should be put aside for the duration of one's stay. To that end, Azula had insisted that they all leave their wakizashi behind as there was the odd chance that someone might recognize the finely carved and lacquered patterns and family mon that decorated the hilts and scabbards. Despite the fact that is _was_ traditional, and Zuko was, on the whole, a big fan of tradition, he found himself hesitant to comply. Not only did he not like being unarmed, he had fought too long and too hard, sacrificed _far_ too much, to simply leave his wakizashi behind. Before it had devolved into an argument, however, Mai pulled him aside and told him that she had over two dozen kunai and tanto secreted about her person and inside beach bag she was bringing, even the _beach_ _umbrella_ had a sword in its mast. Zuko, both mollified and slightly impressed at the setup, found himself acquiescing to the idea and even going so far as to leave his now nearly shoulder length hair out of its topknot, hanging over his face.

So the four of them (Lo and Li having peeled off earlier to meet a rather large group of leering elderly men, much to Zuko continuing horror) advanced on the beach. Azula found and claimed, through dint of destroying a child's sandcastle, a "perfect" spot. What made it "perfect" Zuko couldn't say, and he had the strong suspicion that Azula had simply wanted the excuse to smash something, much as she had always loved to do when they had come here in their youth.

Iroh and Lu Ten had been phenomenal castle builders and Azula, once she had seen the children's play about the ancient legend of the Dragon-roo Go-jira, had loved to stomp through their constructions, alternating between faux-snarls and real-giggles.

Within minutes, or possibly even seconds, of her arrival, Ty Lee was surrounded by a small horde of young men who, alternating between one another, offering to set up her blanket, teach her to swim, rub tanning lotion on her back, and just generally fawned over her. Mai was incensed, and despite her showing no overt sign of this, Zuko could tell by the way her arm tightened on his, ever so slightly. He took her hand and gave it a small squeeze in commiseration, which startled her minutely.

Zuko had learned to get a better read on Mai. She had always seemed so unflappable when they had been children, but over the last few months, as Mai had grown more and more comfortable with Zuko and more and more invested in actually _helping_ with his projects, he had begun to pick up on subtle clues as to what her mood actually was.

Usually, it was boredom.

Mai, like his sister, was a genius and thus found most everything and everyone slightly tedious. This translated into her spending most of every day totally and utterly bored. Even when she did find something interesting it was the work of _days_ to get her visibly invested in it. While Zuko had learned to recognize the rare flashes of amusement or sadness or irritation that Mai showed, he had also learned to be very careful _not_ to mention it. The first time he had done so, an amused look on his face, Mai had placed that calm unbroken mask of poise on her face and silently swept out of the room. Zuko often wondered how Ty Lee had managed before she had gone off to the circus and effectively broken up with Mai by so doing.

Ty Lee had remained much as Zuko remembered her from their childhood. Incorrigibly bouncy and energetic; unbelievable innocent and optimistic. Zuko was at times reminded of one of the small yapping dogs that old ladies seemed to universally favor.

A corgi… that could tear your throat out with two fingers.

She was _exceedingly_ dangerous, a master of the martial arts and her chi blocking technique a terrifying ability that made her an admirable force-multiplier in any conflict. In addition, there was the fact that her bubbly personality made you forget all of that so easily it was frightening.

There was also the fact that, in the four years since Zuko had seen her last, she had grown _devastatingly_ pretty, a fact which most of the male population of the beach had picked up on immediately. She was, of course, not Zuko's cup of tea, but as he was unlikely to find any dark-skinned, blue-eyed _waterbenders_ in the Fire-Nation, he could at least appreciate the fact that the word "limber" was not _nearly_ anywhere near an emphatic enough word to describe Ty Lee.

Azula, having grown bored of simply laying on a beach towel almost immediately, had taken to scanning her surroundings. Her eyes darted around the beach assessing and categorizing and eventually they fell on a group of similarly aged teens playing Kuai Ball who she then proceeded to watch with the air of an owl-cat watching mice.

"Hey beach bums," she said, her yellow eyes narrowing, "we're playing next." She whipped around, realizing that Ty Lee hadn't heard her due an impromptu trio attempting to woo her with song. "TY LEE, GET OVER HERE NOW!"

Ty Lee, sunny smile unchanged, and without any forewarning, flipped herself over the heads of the trio, performing a pirouette in mid-air, and landed on her hands.

There was thunderous applause as she hand-walked over to a scowling Azula.

Zuko, somewhat bemused by the situation, rose to his feet and removed the long beach robe he had been wearing. Suddenly there was a loud chorus of female screams from behind him and, clad in his bathing-shorts, he whipped around, a hairs-breath from firebending, as he searched for whatever was attacking the beach.

There were no immediately visible threats, but a small gaggle of girls seemed to be watching him rather pointedly.

"What the ash are they staring at?" Zuko muttered as Mai flowed to her feet. He quickly checked behind himself to ensure there wasn't something of interest there.

"They're staring at _you,_ moron," Mai hissed. She threaded her arm through his and glared at the girls, one of whom was waving shyly at Zuko.

"…Huh," Zuko said, and unconsciously his hand moved to wave back. This arm was intercepted by Mai and she half dragged him over to the Kuai Ball court.

After one of the two teams conceded defeat, Azula strode on to the vacated half of the court in her usual manner, that of a conqueror about to make their power known. The rest of her team gathered around her, awaiting instruction.

"See that girl with the silly pigtails?" she said as they went into a huddle. "When she runs towards the ball there is just the slightest hesitation of her left foot. I'm willing to bet a childhood injury has _weakened_ her." All four popped their heads out of the huddle to examine the weak link and then ducked back in. "Keep attacking to her left and we'll destroy her and the rest of her team."

"Might I suggest that you serve, while Ty and I take the vanguard?" Zuko said, showing deference. It was best to simply go along with Azula's strategy in most cases as there would be no living with her otherwise.

"You may," she said nodding graciously. "Anything else?"

"We should all try our best and remember to have fun?" Ty Lee said in her typical cheerful tone.

"Shut up, Ty," Azula and Mai said on top of one another.

Ty Lee was an abnormality among most younger Fire-Nationers. The teenagers on both sides of the net were obviously all samurai of noble houses and for them to play a very public game such as this only for "fun" was a laughable idea. Certainly, no one's lives were on the line, no one would have to commit seppuku based on the outcome of the match, but their honor and their pride was most definitely on the line.

There would be no quarter asked, and no mercy given.

Azula, suiting her own words, served the ball to the left side of the court so fast that it had cratered in the dirt before the other team's reflexes had even caught up. Zuko roared and returned the enemy's next serve with a spike so hard it bounced off the ground and struck one of his opponent's full in the face, knocking him unconscious and necessitating a roster change. In a truly inspiring display of agility and balance, Ty Lee leapt _above_ a rather high return, and with a flip and a downward kick put the ball through an opponent's legs, landing and balancing herself on the net as though it were a tightrope. Mai, her accuracy and hand-eye coordination being as exceptional as they were, was able to thread the ball through gaps in their opponent's defenses and to put odd curves on the arc of the ball easily. The game was ended when Azula, her team already up by a considerable margin, vaulted off her brother's shoulders and used a bending maneuver to cause the ball to explode when it hit the ground on the other side, creating a massive crater and setting the net on fire.

"YES!" she roared, her yellow eyes blazing, "We have defeated you for all time! You will never rise from the ashes of your shame and humiliation!" She laughed a truly maniacal laugh as the Kuai Ball net burned. Zuko, a genuine if unfamiliar grin on his face, walked over and tousled her hair genially.

"Well. That _was_ fun," Azula said after she shooed Zuko away and fixed her bangs.

As though by magic, Ty Lee had already acquired a new set of admirers, and by the time anyone had realized what was going on she had been invited to a party.

"…Your friend can come too," one of the two drawled, indicating Mai with a sappy leer.

"What about me and my brother?" Azula said, never one to not like being the center of attention, as she crossed to stand next to Ty Lee. "You aren't going to invite _us_?"

The two interlopers seemed nonplussed.

"You don't know who we _are_ , do you?" Azula crooned, a slow semi-evil smile creeping on to her face.

"Don't you know who _we_ are?" the taller of the two said condescendingly. "We're Chan and Roun-Jian."

Zuko, a vein throbbing in his temple at their blatant disrespect, moved forward to grind their faces into the dirt. Azula stopped him, one arm outstretched, her yellow eyes intent on Chan.

"But, fine, you're invited," Chan said, as though he were doing them a _favor._ "Just so you know though, some of the most important up and coming samurai in the Fire-Nation are gonna be at this party, so try to act… _normal_."

"We'll do our _best,_ " Azula said, a sinister smirk on her face.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"Why in the ash didn't you tell those idiots who we were?" Zuko said over dinner that evening. "I should have _killed_ them for their disrespect."

"Hmmmm… I guess I was intrigued," Azula said as she used her long chopsticks to take another piece of hippo-beef off the grill in the center of the table, "I guess I'm just so used to people worshiping us-"

"As they should," Ty Lee interjected genially.

"Yes. I know… and I love it," Azula said drawing herself up regally. "But, for once, I just wanted to see how people would treat us if they didn't know who we were."

"This is going to be awful," Mai drawled, holding out a piece of food for Zuko. She had taken to feeding him whenever the four of them ate together as it was apparently something couples "did" while they were being "romantic." Zuko didn't know about that, but he _did_ know he was getting rather tired of being stabbed in the tongue by chopsticks.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"Uhh… You're a little _early_. No one's here yet," Chan said after Azula's ninth loud rapping knock at his front door the next evening.

"You said you'd be partying from 'dusk 'til dawn.' It's _dusk…_ so we're here," Azula said somehow making basic politeness sound so forced in only the way she could.

"But… that's just an expression."

" _We_ are the _perfect_ party guests," Azula said, her tone becoming clipped and assertive. "We arrive _right_ on time, because we a very punctual."

Chan shrugged and waved the four of them inside.

The inside of the house was a rather well-appointed and spacious affair, with a variety of tapestries and fine decorative porcelain that screamed affluence.

"All right, listen up, my dad's an admiral," Chan said. "He's out on maneuvers and has _no_ idea I'm hosting this party."

"Admiral… Damasu?" Zuko said, hazarding a guess based on what he knew about recent naval movements.

"Err… yeah," Chan said, growing visibly worried. "You aren't in the navy, are you?"

"Formerly," Zuko said, much to the young man's relief. Zuko then strode off to make a circuit of the building as it was always wise to know points of in and egress in case of an assault or other emergency.

By the time he returned more people had arrived, and so had the food and alcohol. A small shamisen band was setting up in a corner and tuning their instruments as, in another room, a group of firebenders had set up a popular drinking game involving lobbing small balls of fire at an array of sake cups, forcing their opponent to drink on a successful hit.

Ty Lee was already surrounded by a throng of admirers and, to Zuko's annoyance, so was Mai. She was sitting on a bench against one wall, arms crossed and tapping her foot in a manner that suggested she was irritated and uncomfortable, but unable to do anything about it without being rude (something Mai only did to people she knew very well.) Zuko stormed over to her, banishing the few idiots around her a growl, and then taking a seat next to her and ostentatiously slinging his arm over her shoulders.

"Thank you… sweetie," Mai said, very obviously giving Zuko a quick kiss on the cheek as he continued staring balefully at the rapidly retreating fools.

That accomplished, Zuko removed his arm and the two of them began silently watching the room, alert for possible threats as it began to fill with young men and women around their age. Food and drink began to flow liberally as the band struck up an energetic tune. Much to their amusement, Ty Lee soon extricated herself from her horde of admirers by the simple expedient of knocking them all unconscious and then cartwheeling away. Even Mai snorted in amusement at that before catching herself with a shake of her head.

Azula, much to her obvious dismay, found herself mostly ignored. She remained leaning against a column at the center of the room, staring around with a growing look of, what Zuko recognized as, _petulance_ on her face. After her self-liberation, Ty Lee made her way over to Azula with a pair of drinks and Zuko took a break from scanning the room to watch them.

Ty Lee offered Azula a drink and began chatting amiably, gesturing back at the pile of unconscious or stunned young men. Azula accepted the drink and rolled her eyes as she took a sip, then she shot something, most likely malicious, back. Ty Lee suddenly started crying, and Zuko was forced to restrain Mai slightly. Azula's normal haughty mask crumbled and… she appeared to _apologize_.

 _My sister is capable of apologizing?_ Zuko thought. _That's new._

Ty Lee calmed down quickly and almost immediately resumed conversing cheerfully. She seemed to be complimenting Azula profusely, something she did on a regular basis, and Azula (also as usual) was nodding in agreement. There was another brief bit of conversation and then, seemingly out of nowhere, Azula let out a very loud and awkward sounding laugh.

The room fell silent for a moment from the sheer awkwardness of it.

 _Spirits, the two us are bad at this "normal" thing,_ Zuko thought, not without concern.

"What do you suppose they are talking about?" Zuko said aloud.

" _Boys,_ " Mai said acidly, turning her head away from the two of them. "I'm bored," she said after a moment.

"I know," Zuko said back with an exhale. She was ALWAYS bored.

"I am _also_ hungry."

"…And?"

"So… go find me some food."

"…Is this one of those 'boyfriend' things I'm supposed to know about?"

"Yes."

Zuko rolled his eye as he hauled himself to his feet and made his way through the crowd of people to the buffet table in the next room.

It wasn't a bad spread for such an informal party, but as Zuko perused the variety of finger foods, his eye fell on a platter of fish.

Seeing them, he couldn't help but think of the stinking muck covered fish he'd seen the people of Jang Hui eating.

And, of course, thinking of Jang Hui made him think of the Painted Lady.

Which, _obviously_ , made him think about Katara.

By the time he had finished scooping a few more wontons onto his plate his teeth were gritted in guilty fury as he moved to return to Mai.

As he entered the main room, one of the other guests, gesticulating wildly, knocked the plate out of his hands and the food on to the floor.

"That food was for my cranky girlfriend," Zuko snarled at the small man, gesturing at Mai.

Who was, he discovered, at that very moment being chatted up by the other host of the party, Ruon-Jian.

 _I was gone for FIVE minutes, what is he, a vulture-wasp?_ Zuko thought, fury climbing as he stalked over to them.

Using the water-style kata, "furious waterspout," Zuko removed Ruon-Jian from next to Mai and roughly sat down in his former seat, teeth bared in unmasked rage.

"What are you doing?" Ruon-Jian said irritably after he stopped spinning.

"Stop talking to my girlfriend," Zuko snarled, popping back to his feet.

"Relax. It's just a party," Ruon-Jian said petulantly. "You're supposed to have _fun,_ you should try it some time."

Zuko took a small step forward and, using the earth-style kata "snapping shale," launched Ruon-Jian across the room and through a large vase, obliterating it.

" _Now_ I'm having fun," Zuko snarled, glaring down at the fallen man,

"Zuko, calm down," Mai said, gracefully coming to her feet.

"Calm down? Calm DOWN?! But he was- You were-" Zuko stopped and exhaled a blast of flame from his nose.

"You are out of control. You need to have some decorum… and class."

"OH _Yes,_ Mai!" Zuko spat, his mind still full of angry grey-blue eyes and guilt. "Let us all simply sit there like lumps when things aren't going our way, let us all just let everything fall apart without caring about _any_ of it!"

Mai recoiled as though she had been slapped, her tawny eyes flashing dangerously. "I'm not having this discussion with you _here_ , Zuko. You need to-"

"Hey! Who broke my Nana's vase?!" Chan shouted loudly, cutting Mai off. He stormed over to Zuko who Ruon-Jian had pointed at hesitantly. "That's it! You're out of here!" he shouted poking Zuko in the chest.

Zuko looked down at the finger, then up at Chan. Chan removed his finger and took a hesitant step back.

"I was just leaving," Zuko growled.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

 _What is WRONG with me?_ Zuko wondered as he walked along the beach. He had no particular destination in mind, just a need to move and to hopefully excise some of the rage that seemed to cling to every breath.

 _At least I didn't firebend at anyone… but I shouldn't have yelled at Mai like that. She of all people knows what I'm going through._ At least Zuko didn't have to watch the person he was in love with flirt with half of the Fire-Nation right in front of him.

His feet continued to move of their own accord as his mind spun, once again, through all the shame and recriminations it could muster.

 _You betrayed your lover, your uncle, your mother. You've gotten almost all the people you've ever cared for killed, imprisoned, or condemned to life on the run, And for what? So, you could come back home and go to fancy parties, full of honorless ignorant fools? Pretend to love a woman who can't even be physically attracted to you? LIE to yourself and your Nation?_

 _I came back to HELP!_ Zuko thought, arguing with his own internal monologue. _I came back for my people and my SISTER, so we could be family again!_

… _and how has THAT worked out for you?_

It had not worked out well at all. Father was as distant as always and Azula, despite her momentary appearance of civility, was still bitter at Zuko's return to the public role of Crown-Prince. This was understandable, expected, but there was more to it than that.

Something was… _off_ with Azula.

Zuko had been able to understand her somewhat erratic behavior in Ba Sing Se, it was after all one of the crowning achievements of her life, but after the dust had settled and all the fighting was done, she was still… off.

He had started noticing it on the boat ride home. She would go from outward calm, to blind and snarling rage in seconds and with absolutely no provocation. She seemed to have deadly focus, but _what_ she focused on changed from moment to moment, matters that were of life-or-death importance became trivial in a single breath. She would say something kind and then follow it up with something sarcastic and vicious. That, at least, was how Zuko remembered her from their youth, but now she would also do the opposite, as he had once again witnessed with Ty Lee not an hour ago. She could be savage and cruel and then… almost _sad_ at her words, as though she herself had not said them. That she could apologize for her actions was admirable but… so unlike how she had been before.

When taken with all the rest Zuko found himself disturbed.

Zuko's feet, still acting of their own accord, brought him to a halt on a sandy slope. He had come a long way in his musings, all the way to the private side of the island.

No one came to this place, at least, not anymore.

Banishing his thoughts Zuko raised his head and looked up at the Winter Palace, vacation retreat of the Royal Family. Its white plaster walls and red tiled roof so different that the black stone and copper of the Palace. His family had come here every winter when he had been a child; at least they had until Fire-Lord Azulon had died. It had all come crashing down then, Lu Ten dead, Uncle disgraced, Mother missing most likely dead, Father more distant than ever.

And they had stopped coming to Ember Island.

They'd stopped being a _family_.

All his life, like everyone in the Fire-Nation, Zuko had been taught the importance of family. Family was everything, and that was doubly true when your family was Akodo; the Fire-Lords the leaders of the Nation. His family had been destroyed when he had been nine, and Zuko was now fairly certain that it was _his_ fault. His mother was dead, she had probably killed his grandfather and, in turn, been killed by his father. For what reason he could not fathom but his mother's words, " _everything I've done, I've done to protect YOU,"_ were quite obviously damning given the timing. It was no wonder his mind had always shied away from contemplation of his mother's disappearance. A part of him must have known what he would find should he _truly_ investigate the matter.

His feet carried him up the hill and to the front door of the Palace. The doors were locked and without a thought Zuko kicked one of the heavy doors off its hinges, clouds of dust rolling out as it landed.

The formal entryway was wide and the many urns and decorative suits of armor were covered in dust cloths. Zuko had no shoes to remove in the lower entryway and so simply continued forward, his eye now fixed on the portraits at the far end of the room.

His family

Just above eye level sat the portrait of Fire-Lord Azulon, Zuko's grandfather, sitting next to his wife, Zuko's Nana Ilah. A young Iroh beamed toothily at his father's side while Ozai stood calm and dignified next to his mother, even then taller than his older brother, a near mirror image of a younger unscarred Zuko. Under the first painting were portraits of Iroh and Ozai's families. Iroh, still beaming toothily, but now with his trademark beard stood next to his wife Ocha'hana who had passed away not long before Zuko was born. Lu Ten stood next to his father, arms behind his back, proud in only the way an unblooded eight-year-old could be. Next to this portrait was Zuko's own immediate family. Ozai and Ursa seated, his mother smiling gently, his sister's hands folded in her lap looking beatific. Even Ozai appeared gentler than Zuko knew him to be, his hand on a young Zuko's shoulder.

 _You DARE to beg in front of ME!?_ The voice of his father roared. Zuko took a step back, his ears seeming to ring even now with the force of his father's fury. Shaking his head to clear it, Zuko went back went back outside the house and meditated for a long time.

"I thought I'd find you here," Azula said softly, almost an eternity later.

"Those winters we spent here seem so long ago," Zuko said, unable to restrain a touch of sadness in his voice. "Everything has changed."

Azula looked up at the house contemplatively, then shook her head. "Come down to the beach with me," she said beckoning with her hand. "Come on. This place is depressing."

Side by side the two of them walked down to the beach where Mai and Ty Lee sat waiting, both very pointedly not looking at each other.

"Are you cold, Mai?" Zuko asked, the façade of caring boyfriend back in place.

"I'm _freezing,_ " Ty Lee said genially.

"I'll build us a fire," Zuko said. He cut down a small nearby palm tree with his blade of fire, drying it out quickly with his bending and using it as a firebase. He really didn't need that much fuel, he was a firebender after all.

That accomplished the four of them sat, each on their own side of the fire pit, watching the flames, orange and yellow once Zuko had released them.

Despite his heavy thoughts and the dark somber mood that had fallen over the beach Ty Lee seemed unaffected. She prattled on about the party, the beach, the time she had been allowed to come with Mai and Azula to the Winter Place one year, her circus debut. Normally Zuko found her cheerful attitude charming, but tonight it grated on his nerves like a saw on glass.

"Ty? Will you, for the love of the SUN, shut UP," Zuko said through gritted teeth. "Nobody cares about the flaming circus."

"I… I was only trying to lighten the mood," she said her eyes falling down to the sand where she sat.

"Do you think I CARE about the flaming MOOD?"

"I think you do," she said quietly.

 _Damn it just let me BROOD, for spirit's sake!  
_

"You do not know me, Ikoma Ty Lee. So why don't you mind your own business?" Zuko said one half of his mouth raised in a snarl.

"I know you," she said still quiet.

"No. You don't. You have _no_ idea the things I have seen and the things I have _done_. You just live in your little fantasy world where everything is so _wonderful_ all the time."

"Zuko, leave her alone," Mai said, the warning plain despite her monotone.

"This is the REAL world, Ty," Zuko continued, ignoring Mai and looming over the fire towards Ty Lee. "Things are NOT nice. They are not FUN. And they are NOT solved by prancing around on your hands. If you want THAT go back to your fucking peasant circus."

Azula giggled at her brother's unusually harsh tone.

"Yes I worked at a circus," Ty Lee snapped, an unusual bite in her voice, "go ahead and laugh all you want. You want to know _why_ I joined the circus?"

"Here we go," Azula said, her eyes rolling heavenward.

"Do you have _any_ idea what my home life was like? Growing up with six sisters who look exactly like me? It was like I didn't even have my own name, didn't have my own identity. I was practically part of the décor! I joined the circus because I didn't want to spend my life as part of a matched set of interchangeable dolls! At least I'm _different_ now! At least I'm ME."

"And is _that_ why you need ten boyfriends, too?" Mai said, her eyes narrowed.

"I'm sorry, _what_?" Ty Lee said, turning her angry, now tear-filled, gaze on Mai.

"Attention issues," Mai continued. "You didn't get enough attention when you were a kid, so you're trying to make up for it now. Does flirting with everything with a _pulse_ make up for that?"

"No. It doesn't," Ty Lee spat, eyes now wide in fury. "And what's your excuse? You were an only child for fifteen years, but even with all that attention, your aura is this dingy… pasty… grey…"

"You know I don't believe in auras," Mai said, rolling her eyes.

"You don't believe in _anything,_ " Zuko said.

"Oh, well, I'm terribly sorry I can't be as high-strung and crazy as the rest of you," Mai said waving a single hand dismissively.

"I'm sorry too," Zuko said. "I wish that you could just admit that there are things that you _care_ about. That everything wasn't just a big chore for you."

"What do you want from me? You want a teary confession about how hard my childhood was? Well, it wasn't. I was a rich only child who got anything I wanted," Mai sighed, and her tone grew darker as she stared into the depths of the fire. "…as long as I behaved… and sat still… and didn't speak unless spoken to… and never did anything… _unusual_. My mother said we had to keep out of trouble, we had my father's _position_ to think about." Her eyes flicked to Ty Lee's for the bare space of a heartbeat.

"Well, that's it then," Azula said with a dismissive gesture. "Basic psychology. You had a controlling mother who had certain expectations, and if you strayed from them you were shamed. That's why you're afraid to care about anything, why you can't express yourself. Just another textbook case of-"

"You want me to _express_ myself?" Mai snarled, all calm suddenly gone from her face as she burst to her feet. "Leave me the FUCK alone!"

Zuko and Ty Lee goggled in amazement as the Mai and Azula stared each other down. Zuko tensed, prepared to leap in front of one or the other to keep them from tearing each other apart.

"I like it when you express yourself," Ty Lee whispered causing Mai's head to whip around at her.

"You want _tantrums?_ " Mai snarled, trying, and failing, to bring her emotions under control. "Try _Zuko_ , he's got enough drama for _all_ of us!"

"Oh, I am sorry that my life hasn't been all beach parties, circuses, and sitting around be _quiet,_ Mai," Zuko snarled, anger once again stoked as he glared at Mai. "I am sorry that I spent all of my time living in ships and tents, searching for that little bald fuck."

"Whatever. That doesn't excuse the way you've been acting," she said bitterly.

"I was gone for six years, Mai. Six blighted ash-spawned _years_! I was gone so long I didn't even remember where my _rooms_ were, I had to find a fucking servant to tell me!" Zuko began to pace back and forth on his side of the fire. "I thought I could come home, and everything would finally be alright. I thought that if my father restored me… I would be happy. Well, I'm back and everything is perfect, right? WRONG! Everything is a wreck, a shambles, a fucking tragedy! I should be _happy_ now, but I'm not, I'm angry than _ever_."

"There is a simple question you need to answer then," Azula said quietly. "Who are you angry at?"

"What?" Zuko said his voice dropping into a more normal tone in surprise. "No one. I am just… angry."

"Who _are_ you angry at, Zuko?" Mai said tawny eyes boring into his.

"I… I don't know."

"Is it dad?" Azula said.

"No. I'm not a-"

"Your uncle?" Ty Lee guessed.

"No! That's not-"

"Is it _me,_ " Azula whispered.

"No! Spirits, Azi. You know I'm not-"

"Then who?" Mai said, refusing to let it go. "Who are you angry at?"

"Answer the question, Zuko."

"Talk to us."

"Come on, answer the question."

"Come on, answer it."

"I'm angry at myself!" Zuko roared. The firepit burned red and screamed high into the night sky, then fell back inward leaving nothing but quiet embers.

"Why?" Azula said, so softly that he almost didn't hear it over his ragged breathing.

"Why? WHY?! Because I am a failure, Azi! There is not one thing I can do without fucking it up! There is not one thing I can look back at in my life and remember with pride! It's all just… ash… and bones."

"…You're pathetic," Azula said after a moment, her voice tremulous.

"I guess you wouldn't understand, would you, Azula?" Zuko sneered. "Because you're just _so_ perfect."

"Well, yes, I guess you're right. I don't have sob stories like the rest of you. I could sit here and complain about how our mother loved Zuko more than me, but I don't really care." She gazed at the dead fire, her eyes going glassy. "My own mother thought was a monster." She sighed then shrugged apathetically. "She was right of course, but it still hurt."

" _Azi_. No she _didn't_. She loved you. She loved both of us. How could you think that she-"

"She didn't get herself killed for _me,_ Zuko."

And just like that, it was out in the open. Actual verbal confirmation that his mother was dead and ash.

"What- what-" Zuko felt as though he'd had the wind knocked out of him.

"State Secrets, Zuko," Azula said putting a finger to her lips. "I, at least, know how to keep a secret. But can I mention how much I _love_ that you never even _asked_ where she had gone? She loved you _so_ much, and you never even asked about her again."

"How DARE you!" Zuko roared, in all of a blink on the brink of madness, his hands trembling violently at his sides.

"She loved you SO much she left ME all alone with _you two!_ " Azula screeched, her apathy disintegrating like the thin façade it was. "And then YOU left too! Left me all alone with-" she cut herself off, biting at her lower lip. "You have no idea, no idea at all what it was like. Nothing is EVER good enough! At least when you were here I had that. I could say 'I'm better than Zuko' but then you just couldn't keep your mouth shut, and got yourself _banished_ over something utterly unimportant and left me alone to carry the whole thing. The whole FUCKING Fire-Nation!"

Zuko felt his heart break a little as the madness fell away from him. "I didn't want to go, Azi," he said, grabbing her shoulders. "You know I-"

"You DID. It was just like those stupid books Mom used to read to us! You wanted to go and be noble and honorable and have _adventures._ Why else would you be so _stupid? Why didn't you fight back?"_

"He's… he's my _father…_ and my liege lord. What else could I have done?"

Azula looked at him, her yellow eyes considering, as though willing him to read her mind and pick out the words that she couldn't say. What they were he couldn't fathom.

"I… I'm sorry, Azula," Zuko said quietly, dropping his arms to the sides.

She exhaled in a little puff then rolled her eyes. "Of _course_ you are," she said, atone completely normal, as though she had not just been a hairs-breath from a complete mental breakdown. "Well, those were _wonderful_ performances everyone. Bravo."

The four of them sat for a long moment in quiet contemplation.

"You know? I _do_ feel better," Ty Lee chirped, a sunny smile reappearing on her face. "What your aunts said came true. The beach did help us learn about ourselves. I feel all smoothed. I think I will always remember this."

There was another long pause as the other three silently agreed with her.

"You know what would make this _truly_ memorable?" Azula said a wide smile spreading across her face. "Zuko? Did you know that _Chan_ took me out on the porch and _kissed me_ after you went to go get Mai some food?"

"He. Did. WHAT!?"

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Zuko had to say that the Damasu house burned quite well.

Too well in fact.

 _I'm going to have to review the building codes when I get back,_ he thought shaking his head.

The four of them had walked, or, more appropriately, the three girls had followed behind a tooth-gnashingly angry Zuko, to Chan's house. Zuko already knew the man's father, one of Zhao's old cronies, and now had absolutely no problem letting the fool know _exactly_ who he was dealing with.

"This party is OVER!" Zuko had roared as he kicked his second door of the day off its hinges.

"Who the ASH do you think you are?" Chan squawked indignantly.

"I'm Akodo Zuko, the fucking Prince of Fire! And you _kissed_ my little sister!" Zuko roared, his finger thrust at Chan from across the room in accusation.

Chan went as white as a sheet and Zuko spent the better part of half an hour chasing him down, shouting obscenities and alternating between demanding Chan's head and demanding that he offer to "make an honest woman" of Azula. Even _he_ wasn't sure if he was serious on that point. Meanwhile, the girls amused themselves with destroying a variety of precious antiques and setting fires as most of the crowd of partygoers fled. Chan eventually escaped, diving from an upper balcony over the water below, right around the time the fires made it to the third floor.

"So, feel better now?" Azula said as the two of them watched the house burn.

"Much," Zuko said. "Are we-"

" _Done_ , talking about it?" Azula said cutting him off. "Yes, I think we've had enough emotional sharing time for _this_ decade, thank you."

Zuko nodded and let it go at that.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"I have a solution to our problem," Mai said a few evenings later from her perch on the edge of the bed she was sharing with Zuko.

"You will have to be more specific," Zuko said, tying the belt of his sleeping robe tight, in the manner of a man donning heavy armor. "We have a great _many_ problems."

"I was referring to the most current one," Mai said fanning a variety of fancy cards that had been delivered to Lo and Li's doorstep.

Ever since Zuko had announced himself at the destruction of the Damasu house invitations to innumerable social engagements had begun to appear addressed to him and Azula. While people had been content to allow them the traditional anonymity of the island, _announcing_ oneself had apparently voided that protection. There were dozens of invitations, and this was in spite of the fact that Zuko's last party had concluded with expulsion and a subsequent house burning.

"I know how to burn cardstock," Zuko said, making a feeble stab at humor.

"You have been invited to these," Mai continued, ignoring his failure of a joke, "because no matter how compelling our relationship is among the lower classes you are still technically unattached. You are single _and_ the Crown-Prince. You are, quite literally, the most eligible bachelor in the nation. You hate the attention, we both hate that _I_ get attention. _This_ is the problem."

"So, you want to… step things up?" Zuko said restraining a wince. "Mai you are already doing me a rather large favor by…" he trailed off struggling to find a surreptitious way of saying _"faking a relationship, so you can fake spy on me, for my sister."_ The interior walls of the cottage were thin, and he couldn't guarantee that someone wasn't listening.

Mai rolled her eyes. "Everyone is gone, Zuko. Your aunts took Azula and Ty Lee to bingo night, so we could have some 'alone' time."

"Oh… sorry."

"The solution to the problem… it this." She leaned to the side and pulled a well-made box constructed of dark wood out from beneath her pillow. She opened it revealing a trio of silver hair combs, two wide and feminine, one thinner and with a flame made of rubies set into the top.

Zuko goggled. "Are… are you _proposing_ to me?"

"Yes. _Obviously_ ," Mai said with a shake of her head.

"But… but… you- you're-"

"Gay? Yes, thank you Zuko, I haven't forgotten."

"So… obviously you don't… you know… _love_ me. Or I you. Not- not like that anyway and-"

"So?"

"' _So?'_ Ash and bone, what do you mean, 'so?'"

"I mean that _neither_ of us can be with the ones that they want to be with, so we might as well stick together. You need me to calm you down, and to watch your back. I need you to… well… to make life _interesting_ , and to be the one man who knows my secret and doesn't care."

"I… I don't know what you-"

"I know about the Water-Tribe girl, Zuko. I know you still love her."

Zuko's face crumpled slightly.

"You can't be with her, and I… well, even if I _found_ someone I cared about as much as Ty I couldn't be with them." Her eyes which had actually been approaching wistful shot back to Zuko's with a glare. "Make no mistake, this benefits _me_ a great deal more than it does you. You at least have the _chance_ to find somebody who-"

"No. I don't," Zuko said bluntly. "What woman would I inflict with my attention?" He sighed. "Mai, you should not have to-"

"This is my choice, Zuko. It's the safest one, for both of us." She held out the box.

Zuko stared at them for a long moment. Then took the two wide combs and gently placed them in Mai's hair.

Mai rolled her eyes. "Touching, but we're going to sleep? People don't generally wear these things to bed, Zuko."

Zuko sighed, a method of exhalation he was unfortunately become an expert in. Without another word he doused the lamps and after a long while the two of them fell asleep.

* * *

 **A/N: Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls welcome back to Author Notes that fun extra bit at the end of your (hopefully) favorite fanfic! I'm your host Dapper-Stormtrooper, thank you for being with me tonight(morning/what-have-you).  
**

 **Can I just say that I LOVE this episode? Its things like this that really make Atla really shine. "Let's have an episode where the villainous kids go to the beach and emote at each other!" How freaking genius is that?**

 **Correspondingly I really love this chapter, and I hope you do too.  
**

 **But if you didn't (or if you did) please feel free no matter the time, place, or year to drop me a review/comment. I live for feedback both positive and negative. If you've questions, I can answer them provided it doesn't spoiler anything.**

 **And now on with the countdown…**

 **MET-A-BIIIIIIIITS (/as said in the style of "Lost in Space.")**

 **Ozai is** _ **pleased?:**_ **Yes, Ozai is currently pleased with his son. Even a psychopathic monster respects something that is useful to him. Zuko currently doing exactly what Ozai wants, a weapon that ALSO does the boring drudge work. Remember that, on the whole, samurai see commerce as something distasteful no matter how necessary it is to the good functioning of government. So the fact that Zuko showed initiative and did all this planning is something that Ozai IS pleased about.**

 **Still an A-hole though.**

 **Mai:** **I think it is important to note here that Mai is probably Zuko's best friend. On the one hand, Zuko knows this huge secret about her, and over time, I think Mai has figured out that he's not going to attempt to abuse it. In turn, they have been spending a lot of time together and Mai being informed by Zuko's non-desire to use things against her is, gradually, tearing down the walls that she has built around her. Not only is Zuko, "learning to get a better read on her," she is also** _ **allowing**_ **herself actually emote in his presence, maybe consciously maybe unconsciously. Not only that, but the two of them have become rather protective/possessive of one another. Certainly, they are not actually** _ **dating**_ **but that doesn't mean Zuko is going to allow a bunch of leering asshats to make Mai uncomfortable. In turn, Mai (partially for appearances, partially because even people who aren't romantically involved get possessive of their friends) is going to stare down any Zuko fan-girls.**

 **Sake-Pong:** **Yes, I have samurai kids playing an equivalent of beer pong. I regret NOTHING!**

 **The Winter Palace:** **It just made more sense to me that the beach house would be someplace to go during** _ **winter,**_ **not summer. Like going to Florida for the winter (which I get only makes sense if you're an American but I lack a better explanation) Anyway, this is the** _ **winter**_ **residence of the Royal Family. I figure that Zuko and Azula aren't staying there because A) that would be implicitly declaring that the Akodo family is on the island, which they were trying to avoid and B) Obviously as Azula said it would have been "depressing."**

 **Azula's angst:** **Sorry kiddo you don't get away from this one. Azula, in an effort to maintain her dignity and poise as a villain in the canonical series only very briefly touched on her emotional baggage. Not so here! We are going to have EMOTIONS and they are going to be MESSY. Uggh emotions? Amiaright? Azula has abandonment issues, combined with… other factors. One of the reasons she is friends with Mai, and believe me they are friends, is that they ARE so similar. High intellect, high-pressure parents (albeit who demand different things from their daughters) and a deep insecurity about** _ **really**_ **expressing themselves. That's why Mai kinda loses it, Azula's being kinda condescending about the thing that they actually have in common. Nobody likes a hypocrite.  
**

 **But anyway I give Azula a chance to express herself, if not as clearly as she would probably like. Feel free to guess as to why.**

 **Thanks again folks, for every like/kudos/subscribe and comment. You're great and have made this whole thing a truly tremendous experience for me.**

 **Thanks again!**

 **.**

 **.**

 **NEXT WEEK on a very special "Avatar: The Last Dragon"...**

 **Zuko finds a family heirloom, and there is shouting.**

 **TUNE IN. Same Zuko time, Same Zuko channel!**

 **Original post date: 16 December 2018  
**


	4. The Avatar and the Fire-Lord

**A/N:** **The Following is Rated S; for Secrets.**

 **It contains dialog, where appropriate, from S3E6 of the same name.**

 **Reader discretion is advised.**

* * *

Chapter 4 "The Avatar and the Fire-Lord"

* * *

 **Winter, year 11 in the reign of Fire-Lord Ozai.**

The Temple of the Ancestors was enormous.

Zuko hadn't been back here since he'd returned home. In truth, he had only been in the temple once or twice between the time he had become a samurai and his banishment. Visiting such a public place as a thirteen-year-old Prince was a daunting prospect in terms of security and timing.

If _that_ had been the greatest challenge of his youth, he would be a much different man now.

The edifice was built along the western edge of the city, making it one of the last places to be graced by the light of the setting Sun. In its construction it was much the same as all the lesser Temples of Fire, tall and angular in is architecture, bronze and copper everywhere, red, black, and gold tiles flowing in sinuous patterns along the floor and ceiling.

And all of _that_ was merely framing.

Framing for all the ash.

Every Fire-Nation samurai, _every single one_ , was cremated and interred within the temple upon their death. Their ashes spread with their families or, by their own request, with the ashes of the men and women who had died in service to the army, interred alongside their division mates. Many of the noble families of the Fire-Nation had had their family plots moved out of the main hall and into smaller side rooms, allowing them to have some privacy when they came to pray to their ancestors in person.

Zuko's family had not.

The center of the temple, in a great round ring, sat the still grey mound that was his family. Over three-hundred generations of Fire-Lords, along with their spouses and children. It was a place of reverence for all citizens of the Fire-Nation.

Akodo himself was in there, somewhere near the bottom.

Zuko's mother was probably in there too.

It was the middle of the night and so the temple was silent in the manner of all large empty spaces. As Zuko entered the great hall, his boots echoed enormously across that space as he made his somewhat hesitant way forward.

 _This is stupid,_ he thought bitterly.

It most likely was _very_ stupid. He was probably playing right into some enemy's hands. Yet he couldn't seem to help himself, so great was his curiosity.

Several nights ago, through means as yet unknown to him, a sealed scroll had been delivered into his rooms.

His very locked and guarded rooms.

Mai claimed to know nothing about it and Zuko was pleasantly surprised to find himself inclined to believe her. If she had wanted to pass a message along to him and keep its origin a secret she would have simply done so. Zuko now firmly believed that she had gotten used to and, in fact, enjoyed the fact that she could be perfectly frank with him.

After all, if you couldn't trust your _fiancé_ who could you trust?

She had also looked rather affronted, in that barely recognizable way that she had, that someone had been able to get into Zuko's office without her knowing about it.

She _had_ been sleeping in the next room after all.

After a few hours of fitful sleep, Zuko would rise from his blankets next to the fire, well before the Sun, to do his daily training. Mai, from her positions on the bed, would always sit bolt upright and stare at him for a moment before falling back to sleep, usually with a knife still clutched in her hand. No matter how quietly Zuko moved, he _always_ woke her.

And Zuko had thought that _he_ was a light sleeper.

So, to say that Mai was _irritated_ that something of clandestine significance had happened not twenty feet from where she slept was something of an understatement.

The scroll, written in a hand that neither of them recognized, had simply read, _"You need to know the story of your great-grandfather's demise. It will reveal your own destiny."_

It made absolutely no sense.

Everyone knew that Fire-Lord Sozin had passed away at the impressive age of one-hundred-and-two. Asleep. In his bed. Peacefully. Perhaps the letter meant to imply that he had been assassinated? "Demise" was usually a word one associated with a more violent end.

But that was patently ridiculous, who would bother to assassinate a centenarian?

Despite that fact, the scroll and its message kept niggling at the back of Zuko's mind. _Great-grandfather's demise? Reveal my own destiny?_

Later that same day, he had found himself stopped in the long hallway of the portrait gallery after a meeting of the Daijo-Kan. Stopped and staring at the large rendering of Fire-Lord Sozin.

It, like most of the artwork in the gallery, was enormous. Sozin towered at least twenty feet high, the red and black image of a comet streaking over the crown of Akodo. In his left hand he had a lifted palm of flame and in his right a map of the Earth-Kingdom, its western half colored red. At his feet was a depiction of the invention of the first steam engine, a firebender shooting flames into its massive cumbersome boiler.

 _Odd that there is no depiction of the airbenders,_ Zuko thought.

"It's never too early for a sitting with the court painter, Zuko," Azula said from over his shoulder, startling him from his contemplation as she passed by. "Be sure he gets your _good_ side."

"I don't _have_ a good side," Zuko grumbled to himself. "Wait, Azula? I have a question."

"Oh? How can I serve our illustrious Crown-Prince?" Azula said, stopping in place but not turning around.

"Azi… you _know_ I don't-"

"Spare me your performance of _regret,_ brother," Azula snarled, turning around to face him. "If I want to see more drama, I'll go to a kabuki house!" Suddenly she turned her head over her shoulder, peering back the way she had been originally heading as though she were looking for someone. When she turned back to Zuko her face was calm again. "I apologize. I have forgotten my _manners._ You had a question?"

 _Who was she looking for?_ Zuko thought glancing over her shoulder in confusion. There wasn't anyone there that he could see so he let it pass. "Was there… anything particularly significant about Fire-Lord Sozin's death? Perhaps… the date. Or the manner of his passing?" he said aloud.

"What an odd question," Azula said mildly, then began to recite by rote. "Fire-Lord Sozin passed away on the twenty-third day after the vernal equinox, after ruling the Fire-Nation for an impressive eighty-five years. He was immediately succeeded by Fire-Lord Azulon, the only son born of his third wife, and his only remaining firebending child."

"Yes, but _how_ did he die?"

"Didn't you pay _any_ attention to your tutors? He died peacefully, in his sleep. He was _ancient._ " Azula narrowed her eyes. "Why are you asking me this?"

Zuko was unsure of how to explain to her that a few nonsense lines in a mysterious scroll had begun to impinge upon his thoughts.

"I… just… _something_ tells me it's important for some reason," he said lamely.

He had expected another biting quip, perhaps Azula would tell him that he was working too hard. He had _not_ expected Azula's eyes to grow wide and, on any _other_ person, fearful.

"You… you see them too, don't you?" Azula whispered.

"See… see who?"

Azula's face closed like a steel trap, back to her normal self in an instant.

"See the _servants_ over there?" she said quickly. "See them _listening_ in on us? Be more careful, Zuzu, I would _hate_ for anything to happen to the Crown-Prince."

She was lying. Zuko knew that Azula could lie as easily as she could breathe but, under normal circumstances, he was sure wouldn't be able to tell.

"Azi? Are you… alri-"

"I am very _busy,_ Zuko. I have another meeting with father, if you will excuse me?"

She turned around and, walking quickly, _fled_.

 _And now she's running away? Azula NEVER runs away._

Zuko watched her disappear in the dim light of the palace.

 _Something is… wrong with her._

The way she had spoken back on Ember Island was yet _another_ thing that weighed heavily on his mind these days. She had seemed almost… _vulnerable_. Confessing that she thought that their mother had loved him more than her, that she blamed Zuko for his own banishment and for abandoning her, that their father…

 _What happened to her? What did… what did the Fire-Lord…_ An undefinable emotion made Zuko's brow to crease downward as he continued staring down the hall. _I will FIX this, but… one mystery at a time please?_

What did _Sozin_ have to do with his destiny?

He had laid the groundwork for many of the Fire-Nation's industrial leaps forward, eradicated the Air-Nomads, and expanded the colonial holdings further south, thus setting the stage for the world Zuko now lived in.

Zuko knew everything… and it answered _nothing._

So, all mundane sources of inquiry exhausted, he had gone to the Temple of the Ancestors. High Winter was fast approaching and the veil between this world and the other was growing thin.

Maybe Sozin himself would answer the question?

Zuko doubted it, but lacking any other options he thought he might as well ask.

He offered a quick bow and a prayer at the Kitsu family shrine, in case his mother was there instead of with Akodo, and then another bow and prayer at the shrine of the 191st Legion, where rested the ashes of the soldiers he had commanded in the Chameleon Bay campaign.

Including, through no small effort on he and his uncle's part, _Ping's_ ashes as well.

Guilt, now a familiar companion, flared in his chest.

 _I should have done better by you Ping. You deserved better._

The whole _world_ deserved better than Zuko. But he was what the world got, and he would fulfill his duties as best he could.

Now, however, he could stall no longer. He crossed the wide, open temple floor and knelt before his ancestors.

It seemed the pressure of their gaze fell on him oppressively. The immense weight of it, his guilt, his shame, his _failure,_ seemed to threaten to crush him into the finely mosaiced floor.

 _This_ was why he hadn't been back. He wasn't _worthy_ of his ancestors.

With a sigh, a bow, and yet another silent apology, Zuko lit the stick of incense he had brought and placed it in one of the many holes intended for that purpose around the ring of the shrine. He rose and was startled to find one of the shugenja of fire standing behind him.

He was… familiar.

"I greet you, Highness," the former master of the Shrine of Roku said with a small bow.

Zuko bowed back respectfully, then paused in contemplation of the tiny ancient man.

"Might I ask you a question, Honored Sage?" Zuko said, dipping in another brief bow.

"I am ever at your service, Highness."

"…How did Fire-Lord Sozin die?"

The shugenja paused in thought for a moment, and Zuko mentally prepared himself for the same answer he got whenever he had asked that question recently.

 _Peacefully, in his sleep._

However, the old man simply nodded thoughtfully and said, "Come with me Highness, I will show you." He suited his own words and, moving at a continent's pace moved, around Zuko towards one of the open courtyards of the temple.

 _Did HE leave the note?_ Zuko thought, suddenly suspicious. Then he smirked in amusement. _Wouldn't THAT just piss Mai off? Some ancient, bow-legged, shugenja managing to sneak up on her._

The two of them, the old man still moving at a dragon-turtle's pace, and Zuko, moving cautiously still in anticipation of a trap, entered one of the many decorative inner courtyards of the temple. Then with a simple firebending move into one of the mosaics, which looked absolutely no different from any of the others as far as Zuko could tell, the shugenja revealed a staircase leading down into the undercroft of the temple.

The air was stale and dry with the heat of the lava flows that still wove through the lower reaches of the mountain below Otosan Uchi. The Shugenja of Fire, when they were not appealing to the spirits or observing the movement of the Sun and Stars in the heavens, spent their time in meditation and observation of the great volcano that Akodo had tamed and from which, legend said, all the islands of the Fire-Nation had sprung.

After what seemed like a week, Zuko and the Master Shugenja reached a massive bronze door cast in a relief of the Fire-Lord. With another series of fire blasts (three long and four short the man would tell him later) the doors ground open and Zuko entered a room full of long-sealed scroll boxes.

The old man only stood at the doorway and, at Zuko's questioning glance said "We only enter here once in a great while, Highness. This is the domain of Akodo. These are the last testaments of the Fire-Lords."

Zuko's lone eye goggled at the Sage.

"But… but I'm not the-"

"It is not forbidden," the old man said calmly. "You are Akodo, and you have questions about your ancestors. I am not even sure your Lord father even knows this room exists. To my knowledge, the last of your family to come here was Crown-Prince Iroh, and that was many years ago."

Zuko nodded absently taking in the multitude of boxes. The literal words of his ancestors. Was Akodo's in here? Was Oda's? Was his Grandfather's?

"Your great-grandfather's should be near the statue in the middle of the room. The most recent Fire-Lords are given priority of place and regretfully your honored grandfather's death was highly unexpected. He did not have time to summon us before he returned to ancestors."

"Thank you… I must apologize honored sage, I did not think to ask your name."

"Suro. Kitsu Suro," he said his ancient eyes meeting Zuko's.

 _Suro… mother used to talk about… her UNCLE Suro,_ Zuko thought, stunned again. _My mother's uncle._

"I thank you… honored uncle," Zuko said bowing much more deeply than he had before.

Suro bowed back, smiling, and then closed the door to leave Zuko to his reading.

Zuko lit the lamps with barely a thought as he looked around the whole of the room. Over three-hundred boxes occupied the space, row after row of simple iron stands holding them all in a circle, pointing towards the statue in the center.

The statue of Akodo.

Where the relief on the door outside was more of a general impression of the Fire-Lord, the robes, the top-knot crown, _this_ was a specific man, clad in armor, his identity made obvious by the three-pronged flame datemono on his helmet.

Akodo. Lord of Honor. Father of Bushido. Bringer of Peace. Mountain-Tamer. War-Master. Shadow-Breaker.

A three-pronged helmet… and a missing left eye.

Zuko felt a wave of disorientation flow over him as his mind was pulled back to the North Pole and the terrible voice that had not been his own issuing from his mouth. That same voice roaring in his own mind on the top of a mountain in the Earth-Kingdom driving both ghosts and madness away from him.

Akodo stood there in the center of the chamber, holding a book, leaves out, the depiction of his expression no less fearsome for the age of its construction.

Ten-thousand years old and still scowling.

And carved on to the book, faded but still legible, were words.

" _A true samurai has only ONE judge of his honor, and that is himself. Decisions you make and how those decisions are carried out are a reflection on who you truly are. You cannot hide from yourself."_

"…cannot hide from yourself," Zuko mouthed the words almost silently, the murmur of his voice lost in the strangely charged silence of the place. Then he knelt before the dais and said a small prayer to Akodo.

The _thing_ inside him hissed.

Exhaling deeply, Zuko rose from his kowtow and opened the box bearing the name "Akodo Sozin," on it and began to read.

" _As I feel my own life dimming, I cannot help but think of a time when everything was so much brighter,"_ Sozin had written.

Zuko's great-grandfather went on to recall his childhood in the court of his father, Fire-Lord Oda, his training, his family, his friends.

One of whom, his very greatest friend, was named Kitsu Roku.

He wrote of how everything had changed after the two of them had passed their gempukku and had been greeted formally as adults for the first time.

And _Roku_ had been told that he was the Avatar.

Having known that their duties might one day separate them the two friends swore to remain just that, best friends, no matter the time or distance apart. Sozin even went so far as to give Roku the ceremonial top-knot crown of the Crown-Prince. Something to remind him of his home

They didn't see each other for twelve years.

" _As time passed, things changed,"_ Sozin wrote. _"The war ended. My father passed away, my uncle remained in the Earth-Kingdom, and I became Fire-Lord."_

 _The war… ended?_ Zuko thought, confused. _I thought THIS was Oda's war? Oda's dream._

And then Roku returned, a fully realized Avatar.

And yet it was as though no time at all had passed. He and Sozin were still friends, Sozin even personally oversaw his wedding.

Where before the tone of the scroll was almost wistful now it grew dark. Zuko could practically _feel_ the rage boiling off the paper as Sozin wrote of he had gone to Roku with a plan to help the world.

"' _We could share this prosperity with the rest of the world.' I told him. In our hands was the most successful empire in history. It was our DUTY to expand it. With the power of the steam engine, we would have never again seen the likes of another monster like Chin. I was SURE of it."  
_

Yet Roku had refused to listen. Refused to even contemplate the possibilities. Refused _rudely_ , arrogant in his power as the Avatar.

Sozin had stewed in rage and then, writing Roku off as a lost cause, had restarted his father's conquest. First only wiping out the bandit elements that existed in what was coming to be called the Fire-Nation colonies, but then sending Akodo's legions even further east and south, securing towns and fortress left unprotected in the wake of the Chin conflict.

" _I would drag the world into the light of the Sun, the light of our prosperity, with or without Roku's help. It was my duty as Fire-Lord to bring Akodo's peace to the Earth-Kingdom, that that unbridled slaughter might never happen again,"_ Sozin wrote.

Yet Roku returned to Otosan Uchi, with all the fury of a typhoon breaking on the shore.

Sozin and Roku fought, no longer the gentle sparring of their childhood, and the Palace was torn apart.

Roku won.

And yet he left Sozin _alive_ , suspended on a stalagmite surrounded by the ruins of his palace.

Alive. Dishonored. Shamed.

Sozin grew older. He fumed impotently as Roku undid everything he had wrought in the Earth-Kingdom, returning the Fire-Nation to the lines set by Kyoshi. He plotted and planned, he stratagem a mental failure.

There was no defeating the Avatar.

But then… it had happened. One-hundred-sixteen years ago it had happened.

Mount Azuma had erupted. _Violently._

Sozin could see the blast, could feel the fury of its flames in his bones, all the way from the Winter Palace. Heedless of the danger he had taken a ship to face the mountain.

He _was_ the Fire-Lord after all, it was his duty.

" _When I arrived I found Roku fighting the mountain by himself. He'd been fighting for days while his family and the inhabitants evacuated. I… forgot everything that had happened before and rushed to help him."_

The mountain was quelled, again and again, Roku digging wide channels of earth to funnel the lava away, Sozin performing the "Mountain's Slumber" kata, channeling the heat out and away, solidifying the lava to stone again and again.

But the mountain would not be quelled.

He erupted again and again, and finally, after almost a week, he and _both_ of his brothers erupted simultaneously, none of them any less powerful for all of Roku and Sozin's efforts.

They knew they had lost, and so they fled.

The scampered down the mountain, laughing in the giggly near hysteria of exhaustion, so like the two boys they had once been. The boys who had never been above sneaking an extra helping of dessert from the kitchens or, much later, a bottle of sake and then running away laughing with their prize.

They laughed as they ran, dodging erupting pockets of poisonous gas.

And then one hit Roku square in the face.

" _I remember taking a step, instinctively reaching out to help him, my best friend, choking in agony. He was reaching for me too. But… but I stopped. I realized that without him… all of my plans were suddenly possible. I stood there, surrounded by a burning red sky and had a vision of the future. A vision of the world without the Avatar."_

Sozin left Roku to die.

" _I remember the next day, holding a weeping Ta Min, telling her how very brave her husband had been, my mind a continent away. I would strike at Omashu first, Lord Kuni Bumi was a child, and would fall easily I was sure. The world mourned the passing of the Avatar of Fire and I only mourned not having found a way to get rid of him sooner. But I could not let anyone discover what I had done, and the Avatar could NOT return."_

Thirteen years later, as heralded by the Shugenja of Fire, a great comet streaked across the sky. Sozin, surprising the world, sent Akodo's Legions to burn the temples of the Air-Nomads to the ground.

" _Roku would not return wearing an airbender's arrows."_

The following year he named his youngest son Azulon, for the mountain that had made his dreams possible.

And yet, despite all of that, despite a string of victories in the Earth-Kingdom (although _not_ at Omashu), despite his peoples growing pride and prosperity, Sozin had grown uneasy in his mind and his heart.

He had betrayed his friend, and it rankled.

Using plundered gold from the Earth-Kingdom he commissioned a temple to Roku, the last Avatar, on the island where he had died. He had renamed it Fire-Crescent island, its name and shape a direct reflection of the measures he and Roku had taken while they battled the mountain.

 _"And yet in spite of all this, my mind has grown dark. I was, I AM, certain that the Avatar yet lives, plotting my destruction as I have long plotted his. I have told my son to be ever on guard against him, that one day the dream of my father might be complete."_ Sozin wrote.

And then, last and most troubling.

" _And now, as my life fades I can still hear it, in my heart and mind, another voice sounding like the blast of poison that killed Roku. I do not know how long it has been there, whispering in my ear, only that it is louder now, even as I lay here dying. It whispers for me to go forth and burn, to burn EVERYTHING. The wrath of Akodo, long the strength of my line is tainted now, twisted around that voice._

 _I worry that I am damned."_

And there it ended.

"That can't be it," Zuko muttered aloud. "Where's the rest of it?" he flipped the scroll to the other side finding only blank paper.

 _What was the point of this!_ Zuko thought angrily. _Damn whoever sent that note! Did they think I need ANOTHER reason to be ashamed?!_ He thought, growling in frustration, the scroll crumpling slightly in his clenched fists.

 _Who in Akodo's name could have even sent it! Father and Azula don't even know this room is here! The last person in here was-_

Iroh. Akodo Iroh.

With a shout Zuko rose from where he had been sitting, leaving the testament of Sozin laying on the floor unrolled. Like a thundercloud he flew across and out of the city, cloak streaming behind him as he made his way to the Spire.

The guard gave him no trouble, just handed over the key silently, face the color of spoiled look at the look on Zuko's face.

Zuko practically sprinted up the stairs to the top of the tower and slammed the door to Iroh cell open with a bang.

This time Iroh _was_ looking at him, sitting calmly on his bed of reeds, looking him dead in the face his matching yellow eyes gleaming in the moonlight.

"You sent this, didn't you?!" Zuko roared, slamming the door behind him, and shaking the mysterious note. "You petty little bastard! Thank you for revealing my great _destiny!_ A betrayer, from a _line_ of betrayers. Cursed to fight pointless honorless wars and live in fear of the Avatar's return. How _dare_ you! How dare-"

"How did your great-grandfather die?" Iroh said quietly, untouched by Zuko's rage.

"In his _sleep!_ Terrified of the future!"

"You have more than one great-grandfather, Zuko."

Zuko's rage cut off. He did have more than one. Technically everyone had four, but Zuko had always been taught that line of Akodo was the one worth remembering.

 _Nana Iiah was a Bayushi, so her father would have been one as well._

He had never met his mother's parents and only knew that they were…

 _Kitsu. They were Kitsu! Just like…_

"No," Zuko whispered.

"Your mother's grandfather-"

"DON'T SAY IT!"

"-was Avatar Roku."

Mind reeling, Zuko sank to his knees.

"Understanding the struggle between your two great-grandfathers can help you better understand the conflict within yourself," Iroh said quietly yet with a power that belied his tone. "Darkness and Light are always are war inside you, Zuko. It is your nature, your legacy. But there is a bright side. What happened generations ago can be resolved now, by you. Born in you, along with all the strife, is the power to redeem the honor of our family and the Fire-Nation. _That_ is your destiny." Iroh rose from where was sitting and turned to the back wall of his cell. He loosened a brick there and drew out a small cloth wrapped bundle the size of his palm.

"This is a royal artifact," he said revealing the stylized topknot crown. "It's supposed to be worn by the Crown-Prince."

Slowly, hesitantly, Zuko leaned forward and reached through the bars to touch the crown. As soon as his fingers made contact, the cell fell dark in a rushing sound, like dead leaves moving over the ground.

Iroh was gone, and in his place, holding out the crown, was a figure Zuko had only seen once before.

When he had risen and brought down the temple that had been built over his grave.

Kitsu Roku, the Avatar of Fire, stared sternly at Zuko.

"Hon- honored grandfather?"

Roku nodded solemnly and began to speak. "The time is fast approaching. The comet returns and the world stands poised on the precipice of the volcano. In the dark, when nightmares are real and the unbroken mask lays curled and shattered before you, you will find truth IN. YOUR. SELF. Find me then, and all might still stand. Find me then and you might be redeemed. Find me _then…_ and fulfill your _destiny._ "

 _Find "me?" He means…_

"He's dead grandfather! Azula killed him! How can I-"

"Were that so, I could not be here. The line of Avatars would be broken, all of our souls cast to the void."

"He's… he's _alive_?" Zuko whispered.

"Who's alive?" Iroh said.

Roku was gone, reality was restored and Zuko could only blink as his mind whirled.

"Who's alive, Zuko?" Iroh asked again.

"You… you didn't see him?" Zuko said.

 _Am I going mad?_

"See… see who?" Iroh said looking at Zuko strangely.

Another chill ran up Zuko's spine as he recalled saying that phrase to his sister not so long ago.

" _You… you see them too, don't you?_ " she had whispered.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Zuko spent many of the following next-to-sleepless nights in that library of the dead, deep in the mountain, beneath the mound of their ashes.

He learned a great many things; some good, some bad, almost all surprising.

For one, Oda had never deemed of conquest. His first wife, the love of his life, had died of a plague that had been brought to the shores of the Fire-Nation by fleeing refugees.

Refugees fleeing the marauding hordes of the Warlord Chin.

Oda had dispatched his younger brother, the Shogun Ken-Ryu, and Akodo's Legions to the ravaged ruins of the western Earth-Kingdom both for vengeance and to stop the anarchic catastrophe that was the passing of Chin's savage hordes. There they had been joined by the remaining survivors, hungry for vengeance themselves, and the War-Band of the Avatar of Earth, Kuni Kyoshi.

During the campaign, Ken-Ryu had fallen in love with a local samurai in service to the Avatar, Uesugi Daoi, and had petitioned his brother to let him stay.

Oda had consented, the Ji-samurai Akodo Ken-Ryu married and became Uesugi Ken-Ryu. His first son was an earthbender, his daughter bent fire.

And thus, almost two-hundred-years ago, the first colony, Yu Dao, was born.

Zuko had always enjoyed history, military history for the most part, but even the greater social history of the Fire-Nation was enjoyable. The tales of the Fire-Lords, their chosen generals and heroes, all of these made him feel like was part of something greater. Part of the greatest Nation in the world.

Now though…

The Fire-Lord was supposed to be an indomitable force, sure in judgment and power; infallible and wise. The very symbol of Fire-Nation supremacy. However, as Zuko was discovering, his yellow trailing over scroll after scroll, nothing was ever that simple.

The testaments of the Fire-Lords spoke of failures, of regrets, of mistakes they had made.

They spoke of civil war, of treachery, of the Lords of the land fighting amongst themselves for favor and glory.

They spoke of Sengoku, the declaration of war, Akodo vs Akodo, as their family tore the Nation and each other apart to achieve dominance over one another.

They spoke of madness and betrayal. Dishonor and perfidy, by themselves and by others.

Every testament had some mention of guilt, and regret, of wants and desires, either sacrificed for the good of the Nation, or the needs of the Nation sacrificed for personal desires.

Every testament spoke of honor.

" _A true samurai has only one judge of his honor, and that is himself. Decisions you make and how those decisions are carried out are a reflection of who you truly are. You cannot hide from yourself."_

That was Akodo's testament, carved in stone before Zuko as he returned night after night and read scroll after scroll.

That, it seemed, was the point of the room. To show yourself and your decedents who you _truly_ were.

 _And who am I?_ Zuko thought. _Just WHO am I?_

* * *

 **A/N:** **Gooood moooorning humans (and/or our inevitable robot overlords at some point in the distant future) and welcome, once again, to your(mine at least) favorite Sunday fanfic.**

 **As I sit on my ancient family couch surrounded by my literal barbarian horde of cousins/aunts/uncles and other sundry, I am reminded of those things which are most important in this the holiday season (for persons of a predominantly Judeo-Christian cultural background) and those things are…**

 **Coffee mostly.**

 **Yep. Coffee.**

 **I am MUCH too old to be sleeping on a couch nowadays.**

 **Anywho, have some….**

 **MET-A-BITS SOUP!**

 **Ancestor Worship:** **This is a BIG deal for samurai in the L5R and thus here as well. As I am sure I have written many times the "Ancestors are intrinsic to a samurai's personal identity." So for Zuko to find out that one of his was the Avatar is a big deal. It would actually be kind of odd for a samurai to NOT have known who exactly one of his 4** **th** **generation antecedents was. So I have added the detail that, because he is a royal, he wasn't really told about the other branches of the tree. Just another way that his family have sort of "fallen from the path" as it were.**

 **Moving Expeditiously:** **So in the series, there was this whole bit of skullduggery where the note Zuko received had to be backlit for the message to be shown, and Zuko had to** _ **sneak**_ **into the temple for some reason. I thought it was silly. For Iroh to accomplish anything with that would have taken an extraordinary series of circumstances. So things are less obfuscated, and more designed to appeal to Zuko thus driving him onward, quickly, to his destiny.**

 **Prophecy:** **Absolutely essential (reads: as because I wanted to) to have ghosts appear and give truths and prophecy to your protagonist. Because DRAMA, that's why.**

 **Smoothing the curve:** **So, Sozin had** _ **reasons.**_ **Every despot does, but I think it's important to point out that. He did things that** _ **were**_ **good for his people, he was an early industrialist with good intentions. Good intentions being the asphalt on the road to hell. I like to think that it was** _ **fear**_ **that motivated the Air-Nomad genocide, fear of discovery, of having to face down the betrayal of his best friend. But that's because I over-analyze things a bit too much.**

 **Humility:** **I think the whole point of that room under the temple was about humility. It is important for internal stability in any authoritarian governments that the sovereign be seen as infallible. Your nobility and your lower classes lose that sense you start to get revolutions, but it is important for good governance that the** _ **sovereign**_ **, know that they are NOT infallible omnipotent deities.**

 **That, is where Ozai has failed.**

 **He's never been down there, but I wonder if that is his fault. I doubt that Azulon, who didn't expect him to become the Fire-Lord, would have told him about it. I doubt Iroh did either.**

 **Probably for the best, he most likely would have burned it.**

 **But that's what it's about. Humility, about knowing yourself, and knowing that you are capable of failure. It also gives our boy Zuko the REAL definition of honor.**

 **So NOW we have a Zuko who knows that honor is what YOU make of it, has an inkling that the Fire-Lord isn't infallible, knows that Aang is alive and that he, in some strange way, has a debt of honor to him, vis a vis Sozin &Roku. That's some interesting math, isn't it? 1+1+1+1=….**

 **DRAMA!**

 **All he needs… is a little push.**

 **See you next week!**

 **.**

 **.**

 **NEXT WEEK on a very special "Avatar: The Last Dragon"...**

 **Zuko is not** _ **pushed**_ **so much as SHOVED.**

 **TUNE IN. Same Zuko time, Same Zuko channel!**

 **Original post date: 23 December 2018**


	5. Of Nightmares and Waking Up

**A/N:** **The Following is Rated B; for Broken Masks.**

 **It corresponds, chronologically, with S3E9 "Nightmares and Daydreams."**

 **Reader discretion is advised.**

* * *

Chapter 5 "Of Nightmares and Waking Up"

* * *

 **Winter, year 11 in the reign of Fire-Lord Ozai**

It was a good thing that Zuko's feet were well practiced at functioning of their own accord.

Those feet, so accustomed carrying him mindlessly forward in the badlands of the Earth-Kingdom, now transported him quickly back to his rooms. Zuko's face, which was also well-practiced to taking care of itself when its owner had other things on his mind, had assembled itself in the small scowl he normally wore in public, projecting his usual menace.

As soon as he reached his rooms, and bolted the door behind him however, all automation stopped. Zuko's face crumpled into the very picture of horror and he slid to the ground, his back to the door, his eye darting to and fro like a corned animal, finally displaying the potent mixture of shock and panic that was fomenting in his head.

 _He's insane,_ Zuko thought. _My father… The Fire-Lord is insane._

There had been a major war meeting earlier in the day. Zuko hadn't anticipated being invited, but had found himself summoned to participate instead of attending his normal meeting with the Daijo-Kan.

He had been proud, _proud,_ that his father had thought him not only worthy of participation but _necessary_ to the proceedings.

He had brought Mai with him, a shrewd move to solidify their notional betrothal, and the two of them had knelt next to one another, Mai a half step behind him, as the latest strategy for world domination, "Operation: Clean Sweep," was unveiled. Zuko would focus on the generals and the actual strategic considerations of the meeting while Mai would watch their faces and words and the tones of voice, especially those of the Fire-Lord, hunting for clues as to mood and approval or disapproval.

Teamwork was the key to any successful operation.

Phase One of the plan was simple; a contraction of forces and shoring up of defenses in anticipation of the upcoming Day of Black Sun.

The Day of Black Sun, a complete solar eclipse, was fast approaching, and the holy Sun's absence would rob firebenders the world over of their abilities for a small window. Naturally, this presented a huge vulnerability that an enemy could exploit, which was why every firebender in the Nation always knew the approximate dates of the next _three_ Black Suns. One of the main functions of the shugenja of fire was to plot the course of the Sun, the Stars and, inevitably, the _Moon_ in the sky. A Fire-Nation formal New Year's celebration was always concluded with a moment of silence and a solemn reminder of how much time was left until the next great darkness.

By custom and tradition, no samurai of the Fire-Nation would attack another on the day itself. It was a day of quiet reflection and no _little_ amount of superstitious dread. The _Sun_ went out; and for a people that venerated it, that produced no small amount of horror. Cynically, Zuko was also certain that that dread had been reinforced over the years by firebending lords who understood all too well how much weaker their power base was when they and their full samurai couldn't bend. Even the Royal Family, pleading the common desire for spiritual contemplation and renewal, retreated to a large bunker complex deep in the volcanic bowels of Otosan Uchi.

The Fire-Nation held its breath on the Day of Black Sun.

Yet, even so, many of the generals in attendance at the had meeting suggested that such a large contraction of forces was pointless. No one was left to oppose them after all, and certainly, no one could be stupid enough to attack on a day that everyone knew was the most heavily defensive, most militarily conservative, day in decades.

Zuko, his confidence bolstered by his inclusion in the meeting, had made a stab at humor, saying that the only people foolish enough to attack on the Day of Black Sun, were the same ones who were foolish enough to continue _resisting_ the Fire-Nation.

The joke was actually well received, and the assembled ministers and generals had chuckled in wry amusement. Mai had nodded her head softly, as even the Fire-Lord approved. The plans for a full stand down of forces continued unopposed.

Zuko was elated… if not for very long.

Phase Two… was _MADNESS._

After the military contraction, the newly created Fire-Nation Air-Corps would be revealed to the world. The war-balloons and battle-blimps had passed through their final phase of testing in complete secrecy and would now begin doing drills in earnest. They would undergo several training missions to garner proficiency with their new weapons in preparation for the coming of Sozin's Comet.

And then they would burn the entire Earth- _Continent_ to theground.

Zuko was certain that he had misheard, or perhaps he had fallen asleep and his brain had conjured him an entirely new Katara-free nightmare. Surely he must have dozed off, why else would there be attack markers being placed in the _Colonies_? The _Fire-Nation_ colonies! Why else was no one saying anything? The ministers and generals simply smiled and nodded approvingly as War-Minister Qin described attack vectors and tactical objectives. There wasn't even any discussion of removing Fire-Nation citizens from the Colonies or occupied territories. Why would they attack their own people? The had _beaten_ the Earth-Kingdom, Ba Sing Se had _fallen_ , Gaoling had _surrendered_ as expected.

 _Why?_

Yet in spite of all the logic, little red tokens indicating targets continued to pile up on the large map, clicking as they fell, like the snapping of deadwood in a fireplace. Ba Sing Se, Gaoling, New Ozai, Yu Dao, Tohin Wo, Kanka, Makapu, the entirety of Chameleon Bay, all covered in red.

Zuko had to say something. HAD to. This was madness. His muscles had tensed to rise and begin shouting Minister Qin down…

…and were then stopped cold as he was struck with a powerful sense of déjà vu.

This was what had happened _before_.

This was how he had _failed_ before.

He had seen what he thought was an error in strategy, stepped from his proper place, and had dishonored himself _and_ his father.

So this time he sat, silent, through the rest of the meeting, the taste of bile in the back of his throat, the image of a burning fist screaming towards his now dead eye.

And yet, impossibly, that had not been the worst of it.

Mai had pulled him aside afterwards, before his feet had had a chance to drag him someplace safe so he could have his quiet meltdown. She had reported her findings and Zuko had discovered that, after the planning for phase two had begun, his father had been unable to tear his eyes away from the map where those red tokens had fallen. Mai had, at some point, learned to read lips, and she reported that the Fire-Lord had only said three words during the rest of the brief.

Three words, over and over again.

" _Burn it. Burn it all."_

Zuko knew those words, that mantra. It was written in the testament of Sozin. It came to _him_ as well, whenever he was in the grips of that mad thing that had latched itself to his mind and soul.

His father… was insane _._

The Fire-Lord, the sovereign of the nation, was _insane_.

And so Zuko sat there, slumped on the floor, for a long time, his mind reeling, simply trying to process his emotions and _then_ attempting to shove them into the back of his head as usual.

He wasn't managing very well, it was getting far too full back there.

The Sun was setting when a quiet knock sounded on the door behind him. He gathered himself as best he could, reassembling the scowling mask of normalcy he wore before rising to his feet and opening the door.

It was Mai, looking as poised as ever.

Except that Mai never _knocked_. Even if his door was locked and bolted she managed to enter his rooms anyway. Often through the window.

She silently glided past Zuko, her perfume, much stronger than usual, filling his nostrils unpleasantly with its potency as he shut the door behind her, throwing the bolt once again.

And then… she stumbled.

Mai _never_ stumbled.

"Mai? Are you alr-… Are you _drunk_?" Zuko said, utterly shocked.

Mai _never_ drank.

She answered him by sinking to the ground, producing a small flask from her sleeve, and taking an inelegant gulp.

"They're going to kill my family," Mai said, her voice flat and remarkably controlled for as drunk as she appeared to be. "They're going to kill Tom-tom and I can't do anything to stop it."

"I… I thought you hated your family?" Zuko said stupidly, still in the throes of disbelief. She never referred to her younger brother Tomaki by his pet name.

Mai just looked at him for a long moment, her face as calm and still as always.

Then… it broke.

Broke into a thousand pieces as quiet hitching sobs began to pour from her. Her face contorted in sorrow, making her look much younger than her eighteen years.

Panicked, Zuko burst forward and scooped her off the floor, carrying her to his bedroom, half to keep anyone from hearing her sobs, now rising in volume, and half instinctively to simply get her off the cold stone floor and someplace safer. It was a measure of how drunk and out of sorts she was that she simply cried harder, curling in on herself in his arms.

"It is alright, Mai," Zuko said as he gently put her down on his futon. Oddly her collapse had refocused him. "We will talk to Azula, and then the two of us will talk to our… to His Majesty. There is no way that-"

"I already _talked_ to Azula!" Mai said, her breath still hitching. "She just said maintaining secrecy was our duty as Scorpions and as samurai."

"She… can't have… she can't be alright with…"

"She helped _write_ the plan, Zuko. She helped write it, and I answered her questions like a _fool_ and now my family is going to _die!_ " Mai began to sob so hard it sent her into a coughing fit.

Zuko could find nothing else to say so great was his horror, and so he simply sat there, holding Mai's hand, as his best friend cried herself to sleep.

It was unthinkable. The most collected and poised person he knew had just disintegrated in front of him and in the ringing stillness after she had fallen asleep he found his mind turning the problem over and over. The _guilt_ of his silence, the _shame_ of how terrified he truly was of his father, the _horror_ of understanding that Fire-Lord was _mad_ and truly cared nothing for his own people.

But what could be done?

 _I, Akodo Zuko, swear to serve and protect the Fire-Lord, his heirs and successors, and to serve faithfully and well those they have placed above me._

He had _sworn_. That he had been only an ignorant child was immaterial. He had SWORN.

 _My body, I place as a shield against the enemies of the Nation…_

He had to do _something_. Perhaps he could commit kanshi, the final protest of seppuku.

… _and I will forever more serve the people of Fire with compassion, courage, and courtesy._

It wouldn't work. His father, and the mad thing that owned him, wouldn't care if Zuko lived or died. He could see that now. How then? Maybe…

 _My word is sincere, my honesty unquestioned._

Zuko had spoken out once, it hadn't worked, hadn't changed anything except the topography of his face. Left him dishonored and half-blind.

 _Above all, honor shall guide me…_

Only through serving his father could he retain his honor, only though unfailing obedience…

Zuko was suddenly overcome with a powerful sense of foreboding. The Sun had gone down, and the room was dark, and now suddenly _cold_ in spite of the fire blazing in the hearth. His eye fell on the small crown that his uncle, and his great-grandfather, had given him, sitting next to his copy of _LEADERSHIP_ on his nightstand.

" _IN. YOUR. SELF,"_ Roku had said.

" _In myself?" How is that…_

Zuko, his mangled brow furrowed, picked up his copy of _LEADERSHIP_ with one hand, the other still holding Mai's.

" _A true samurai has only one judge of his honor, and that is himself. Decisions you make and how those decisions are carried out are a reflection of who you truly are. You cannot hide from yourself."_

Akodo had written that. The only words he had found worthy to be his final testament.

Zuko had liked it. Had found it so powerful a statement that he had written it on the first page of his annotated copy of _LEADERSHIP_ , the first time he'd found something worthy to add to the book owned by his ancestors.

 _Myself. Only… Myself. I cannot hide… from myself._

… _What do_ _ **I**_ _think?_

"…Wrong," he found himself whispering. "My father… is _wrong_."

He cast his mind back, through every edict, every command, every directive he had ever seen from his father, weighing them in his own mind, considering their merits and flaws.

"Wrong."

He could not say he agreed with a single one. Could not say that any of them were not controlling, greedy, self-serving and… and… _honorless_.

"Wrong."

His people were starving, the Nation was rotting from the inside out, and now its leaders plotted mass-murder on their own subjects.

" _Wrong_."

So what did that mean? What good did it do him…

 _Above all, HONOR shall guide me. Above… ALL._

"How… DARE he," Zuko said, the words snarling their way out from behind his barred teeth.

And with those words, suddenly everything snapped into focus. His father was just as honorless and faithless as all the criminals on Zuko's list. His father… was an _enemy._ His father was an enemy and Zuko was _angry._ Angry at his _father._ Even when the Fire-Lord had mutilated his face, Zuko hadn't been angry at _him._ That would have been like being angry at rain for falling, it was just natural and right that the Fire-Lord should do whatever he wanted.

Now though, Zuko knew that it _wasn't_ right, wasn't _just_ , wasn't honorable. Like every Fire-Lord before him, his father wasn't… _infallible._

… _and with this sword, I shall keep true to this oath…_

Zuko wanted to leap up and grab his sword. Find his father _right_ this _second_ and make an _end_ of it, one way or the other. But he hesitated, stopped short of getting to his feet by the subtle pressure of Mai's hand in his.

Killing the Fire-Lord would _not_ be the end of it.

Zuko wasn't even sure if he _could_ beat his father in a straight fight. Not only was Akodo Ozai regarded as one of the most powerful benders on the planet, but there was also the simple undeniable fact that Zuko was _terrified_ of him. Terror so deep in his bones he wasn't sure if he could even draw his sword in the man's presence. That fact rolled around in his brain for a moment and was then calmly filed away under "things to be aware of."

He needed to think this _all_ the way through. His uncle had always told him that one of his greatest weaknesses was that he had a tendency to only be focused on the _next_ thing. The _next_ tile in Pai Sho, the _next_ kata in a fight, the _next_ battle in a war. He needed to focus on the _entire_ campaign, the _whole_ strategy, the whole _war_ …

The whole war…

… _even if all friendship and glory desert me. Even if though the land be swallowed by the sea, and the very Sun falls from the sky._

"You want a _war?_ I'll GIVE you a war," Zuko whispered as he sat in the darkness, plotting.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Zuko went to see his sister.

It probably wasn't the wisest move. If Mai had been awake she probably would have pinned him to the wall with her daggers and called him a fool, but Zuko felt he owed it to his sister, and to himself, to give her a chance. To see if there was any part of her that might entertain any portion of the ideas that were now floating around in his head.

 _I will need to think like a Scorpion,_ Zuko thought as he strode through the palace halls. He would need to come at her sideways, not revealing his true intent until he had some glimmering of how it would be received. He would need to be _cold_ , and as he made his way to Azula's chambers, scowl back on his face, servants ducking their heads as he passed, he found that his rage had gone _very_ cold. His anger seemed to have grown so great that it had gone _through_ rage and around the other side into an icy black calm.

Had he thought to try, he most likely could have bent lightning in that moment.

As it was, he found Azula in her chambers, a gang of servants attending to her hair and scrubbing her feet. One was even holding a bowl of cherries for her to snack on.

"Sister? I was hoping to have a word, at your convenience," Zuko said quietly.

Azula's eyes snapped open, her relaxed posture tensing slightly as she stared at Zuko for a moment.

"Oh, very well, Zuko," she said, banishing her servants with a wave, a look of easily restrained irritation on her face.

The two siblings stared at each other for a moment as the servants made their bows and filed out of the room.

"Mai put you up to this, didn't she?" Azula said, a small smirk on her face once the room was clear. "Really, I can't imagine what she hopes you to accomplish."

"No. Mai doesn't know that I am here," Zuko said. "She's a smart girl. She understands her position, understands the needs of secrecy. I actually came here hoping for your help."

"…With?" Azula drawled plucking a cherry from the bowl the servants had left behind.

"Intent."

Azula raised a freshly plucked eyebrow in question.

"It is the duty of a general, and most especially the Shogun, to translate the intent of his superiors into viable strategy," Zuko said, beginning to slowly pace back and forth. "I was hoping you could help me understand father's _intent_ with regards to this most recent… plan."

"His intent? To rule the world. Obviously."

"Obviously," Zuko agreed, "but I was hoping for something more… specific than that. We already _rule_ most of the world. It seems… odd that we would attack our own possessions… when there is still a threat to the north."

"You want to attack the _Water-Tribe_?" Azula said sounding the tiniest bit incredulous.

 _NO. Damnit. Although…_

"It would make sense, strategically speaking," he said aloud. "Which is why I am confused as to father's intent."

"Oh Zuzu, you of _all_ people should know better than to question father's decisions," Azula said, shaking her head ruefully as though explaining something to a particularly dense child.

 _I know that we all SHOULD be questioning his decisions! Burn him!_

"Azula… I only wonder at his intent."

 _Damnit I'm not GOOD at this! She going to figure it ou-_

Azula sighed. "How many troops do we have on the Earth-Continent, Zuzu?"

"Just over a quarter of a million," Zuko responded immediately.

"And _how many_ could we safely withdraw without courting riot, heavy banditry, and rebellion?"

It was an interesting question, and Zuko took a moment to ponder it, mentally shuffling the armed forces around in his head. "…Not many," he said eventually. Honestly, he couldn't guarantee that there wouldn't be insurrection even if they _added_ more troops. The earthers were nothing if not tenacious.

"So, what better way to guarantee stability than to eliminate the problem at its source?" Azula said, her voice growing heated and fervent. " _Purge_ the _weak_ earther blood from the land and re-populate with the _true_ sons and daughters of fire! Then, a hundred-thousand strong, we bring down the walls of Shiro Doji and cleanse the south of barbarian filth!"

" _One-hundred-thousand?" Ancestors preserve me, they're expecting to kill more than half of the occupying forces,_ Zuko thought, his blood running cold at both the horror of the idea and the sickly manic gleam in his sister's eyes.

"I… can see… the logic of that," he managed to choke out.

 _Cold inhuman logic._ Zuko could feel one of his hands begin to shake and he thrust it behind his back, clenching it tightly in the other as he continued to stalk back and forth.

"The… Dai Li you brought back with you… you are certain that they have no knowledge of this?" He said, not bothering to hide his concern as he attempted another tact.

"They only know what I want them to know," Azula said dismissively. "Pathetic trusting creatures."

 _They gave us Ba Sing Se, and she still thinks of them as animals, just because they are earthbenders._

"Impressive," he said aloud, impressed only with how utterly foolish they must be.

 _One more try, just the one._

"I must admit I do wonder what will happen _after_ though," Zuko said, trying for nonchalance. "After Oda's dream is fulfilled, who do we fight then?"

"You know, I never thought I would say this to _you_ Zuko, but, you're thinking too much. Understanding intent is all well and good, but all you and I need to do is trust in father." Her eyes grew unfocused and distant, staring beyond Zuko at something only she could see. "We just have to trust in father… he… he knows what's best after all."

 _Akodo's name… she's afraid of him too,_ Zuko thought, another cold spike of anger flaring in his heart. _What the FUCK did he do to my sister!?_

The Azula of his childhood had always been fearless, bright and confident in her own power. She had once kicked their grandfather, Fire-Lord Azulon, in the shins and told him he that smelled bad. She had been maybe four, but even when Zuko had been that age he had been in awe of the man. The Azula he remembered was a cyclone of laughter and destruction, not this blankly staring girl hiding skittishness behind pretend fervor. He'd been gone too long and left his little sister at their father's mercy for a large span of her life.

She had said as much on Ember Island.

"What, is there something on my face?" Azula asked, snapping him back to the present with her more normal tone.

"No. Just your nose, Azi," Zuko said doing his best to hide his mingled grief and fury. "I'm sorry… for interrupting your relaxation." He bowed slightly and turned to leave.

"Zuko?"

 _Shit. What did I miss? I knew this was a bad id-_

"Keep an eye on Mai for me, will you? She seemed… really conflicted last night," Azula's voice was concerned again, soft and actually worried.

Zuko turned around and actually _saw_ his sister's face shift from disdain to worry and back again. Completely out of control, like a flag flapping one way then the next in an errant breeze.

 _Spirits save us, something in her is broken,_ Zuko thought his heart cracking a bit _. I can't tell her. I don't even think that SHE knows what she would do._

"Everything will be alright, Azula," Zuko said, lying to her for the first time. "Mai is smart. She will make the right decision. Goodnight."

And with that, he strode out of the room.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Things were shifting.

Over the last few months Zuko had fooled everyone, his father, his sister, his retainers, everyone. Everyone thought he was a dedicated Prince and general, a samurai of the Lion, body and soul.

It had all been fake. A façade so powerful and solid even he had believed it at times. There _had_ been moments, in the heat of a council meeting, or a morning training session, or bringing a criminal to justice where he had felt _almost_ right, almost the way he _should have been._ Brief flashes where he _almost_ cared.

He had fooled _everyone_.

Now, however, things were moving. Shifting around inside his heart and mind as he strode back to his rooms. He didn't have to _pretend_ that he cared anymore.

He cared _now_.

He would not allow his father to massacre his people, he would not sit idly by while his Nation rotted into starvation and dishonor, he would NOT allow his father to dishonor their Nation or their family name any further.

He would need to move carefully. Slowly. Methodically. But that was better anyway, he had never been quick, but he was _very_ good at slow.

 _It will start with Mai_ , Zuko thought as he reached his chamber door. It _had_ to start with her, she would be fundamental to any strategy, and if she had a change of heart, and decided that her family wasn't worth the risk of betrayal, then at least it would be over quickly. She might even be kind enough to murder him in his sleep.

He needn't have worried.

She _knew._ All she'd needed was one look at him as he strode back into his bedroom.

She had popped up in her usual reflex, a shuriken in her hand already ready to throw, then rubbed at her eyes with her other sleeve, clearing sleep and tear residue from them, and looked at him. Zuko wasn't sure if it was his posture, or a look in his eye, or something else, but she _knew._ Apparently, she knew him well enough to see whatever change had crept into him. She just nodded at him, a look of fierce determination settling in her own tawny eyes.

"We should approach Major Uesugi first," she said as she rose from the bed and, as if by magic, reassembled herself into the very picture of poise.

Zuko simply grinned at her.

Major Uesugi Rin had been _born_ in the colonies, his entire family, minus Bo and baby Kyoshi, was there. The likelihood that he would betray them was minimal at best.

Later that evening Rin required absolutely no persuasion. Zuko had announced him relieved of his oath of fealty, then told him about the Fire-Lord's plan. Zuko didn't even finish asking Rin if he would want to swear again, before the man was on his knees, pledging his life and the life of his family to Zuko. Zuko had of course accepted, but quickly followed that with a command not to tell anyone, even Rin's imperiled family, right away. If anyone got wind of Zuko's intended betrayal the match would be over before it was even truly begun.

Uesugi Bo was next, practically another certainty.

She had not, until this point, technically been one of Zuko's retainers but wherever Rin went, she was never far behind. She deposited a now happily gurgling Kyoshi into her father's arms and dropped to her knee to swear.

Captain Hosokawa Jee, ever the malcontent, was next. As the son of a low-born magistrate, he already felt enormously out of place investigating members of the aristocracy, no matter how much he enjoyed seeing them humbled. How would he handle being told the _next_ person on Zuko's list?

He seemed to take it in stride, his hands clenching and unclenching unconsciously as he added the new information to the string-chart of conspiracy he had in his head. In the end, he pointed out, mostly to himself, that Zuko was the only one who had ever really appreciated his _inability_ to hold his tongue. He swore too.

Major Matsu Haki, despite personally being a rather simple creature, was a bit of an enigma. He was nominally in line to be the head of the Matsu family, an aristocrat with a pedigree almost unmatched in the Fire-Nation. He was the oldest child of the oldest child of Matsu Saeko, Lord Matsu, and as such had far more political clout than anyone could have anticipated when he was a simple captain of the cavalry. After much deliberation, Mai agreed that he should be brought on board. The Matsu family was well-known for being brash, impulsive and outspoken and Mai reasoned that if Haki decided to set himself against them he probably do so immediately, notions of subtly and common sense ignored in favor of action. If that were the case, he could be put down immediately.

Haki _had_ reacted violently, but in favor with Zuko.

After only the briefest of explanations, he had burst into a fit a swearing, eventually becoming cogent enough to call Operation: Clean Sweep "Barbarous, Honorless, Crap!" He immediately re-swore and said he was certain that the rest of his extended family would too.

"And if they _don't_ then they're NEXT on the funeral pyre!" he shouted.

He then attempted to storm out of Zuko's office with the intent of ensuring that they WOULD join immediately but was quickly restrained and told NOT to tell anyone until Zuko and Mai gave the go ahead.

From there the plan was compartmentalized. It was a matter of operational security, now fiercely enforced by Mai, that no one save she and Zuko knew all parts of the operation any one time.

Haki, being the most likely to say something he shouldn't, was given the simplest of tasks. Namely the purchasing of large, if innocuous, items, nominally on behalf of the Treasury. Inks, papers, and several of the newest of the printing presses; simple and innocent.

As if _ink_ didn't have a power of its own.

Rin and Bo, again ostensibly on behalf of the Treasury, were sent to investigate lines of trade and transportation between Ginasutra and the Colonies. Finding out who would transport what, and which of them would not ask too many questions, was critical.

Jee was dispatched to the Colonies themselves. No one would be surprised that a man known for his verbal indiscretions would be sent away, and Zuko wanted a man on the ground. He would flit from garrison to garrison, from city to city, attempting to ascertain which way the officers and minor lords would jump when the time came. Which would stand with Zuko when the truth came out, and which would simply accept the oncoming firestorm as the mandate of the heavens.

Soon everyone would know the _truth._ If nothing else, Zuko would make sure of that.

Mai took for herself the most subtle and dangerous of tasks; the assessment of the entire upper echelon of the Fire-Nation military establishment. In the following weeks, she would arrive at a general or admiral's home, engagement combs in her hair, with a missive from the Crown-Prince. She would be readily admitted and served tea in the customary semi-formal dance of courtesy.

Her meetings with them were simply assumed to be the beginnings of her introduction to the halls of power as a potential future Princess of Fire. But in truth she, using her childhood education as a courtier, would attempt to see what those very few who were in the know thought about the varied edicts of the Fire-Lord, specifically Operation: Clean Sweep.

In general, she found that the Admiralty was all for it. There had been, she discovered, many long and secret battles over what department the new Air-Corps would fall under, battles which the Navy had eventually won. As such they loved the idea of destroying their enemies from afar, raining down death and destruction and quickly pacifying a region that had long given their internal rivals, the Army, so much trouble.

Conversely, the Army disliked the plan. They would, they were quick to assure Mai, support it, as it was their duty, but the impression that they gave off was that it felt an awful lot like _cheating_ in a long-running game of Pai Sho against a worthy opponent. There was also the fact that, like Zuko's great-uncle, the Army had made a habit of intermarrying with the people of the occupied lands. Many sons and daughters of the War College were married to Colonials, and in some rare cases, even non-bending earthers.

From these varied meetings Mai compiled a list, each name on it another piece in the growing puzzle that Zuko assembled, only in his mind, day after day.

For himself, Zuko did very little during the daylight hours but go about business as usual. He was under the most scrutiny, by the Daijo-Kan, by his sister, not to mention his father. A toe out of line had the chance to bring the whole operation crashing down and would result in the unopposed genocide of an entire continent.

He also spent a great deal of time watching his sister, and with each passing day he became increasingly convinced that he could _not_ tell her. Now that he had an inkling of it, he was certain that she was unstable, and he could only pray that his upcoming betrayal would not send her careening over the edge. He hoped, although he considered it a very faint hope, that in the ensuing insurrection Azula would be sent away from the palace to act in their father's stead as a leader in the field and that that separation might allow her to realize that their father did not _deserve_ her loyalty.

Zuko, however, could not afford to hold his breath.

Now every night as the Sun set, and before a long and grueling clandestine strategy session, Zuko meditated. His meditation was different now, no longer simply a guilt-filled hour or two of self-recrimination as he stared at a candle. Now red flames roiled purposefully around him, rising and falling with his breathing, as he cleared his mind of everything but the immense task before him.

Stop the Fire-Lord. Save his people.

Redeem himself.

Fulfill his _destiny_.

* * *

 **A/N:** **Hello human-persons and WELCOME to the author notes. Bring you all the stuff you might have missed (and some that I did) since… (/checks calendar) earlier this year.**

 **And what a year it has been, huh? I know I've been enjoying this thing I do a great deal, and I hope you have as well! If you have, or if you haven't, drop me a line and tell me about it, your commentary is one of the major reasons I do this! Thanks again, and in advance, for your comments/kudos/likes/follows/reviews/and just generall all around engagement!**

 **And now….** **BITS!** **... of** **META!**

 **Operation Clean Sweep:** **Ah racism, you finally rear your ugly head. The whole plan, which I imagine Azula and Ozai pretty much cooked up on their own, is so frigging insane in that it HAD to be a ret-con. You will remember that, in the canon series, the plan to attack the EK wasn't revealed until the very end of the show. In the episode that this is based off of Zuko IS attending a war meeting but it's contents are never discussed saving that Zuko didn't like pretending to be someone he was not, namely "the perfect prince." I would think that, had that been the meeting where the plan was unveiled he might have had more concern for all the GENOCIDE, than his own angsty-ness.**

 **But who DOES that? Obviously, genocide is a thing, but who simply destroys utterly and completely lands that they** _ **already**_ **control? Crazy People, that's who. That's would have been the equivalent of nuking Okinawa AFTER taking control of it, JUST to get rid of the Japanese. Stupid, Insane, and most importantly to our discussion here,** _ **completely**_ **out of touch with the rest of the Fire-Nation. Ozai has firmly moved into tyrannical-despot territory. He has also spent the last 11 years surrounding himself, and his council, with yes-men. He does not tolerate people calling his plans into question at all.**

 **Look what he did when his own son did it.**

 **Mai's Family:** **Yes, Mai has feelings. Yes, she loves her family, even with all the nonsense she has to put up with from them. I think half the reason she sticks around, and the initial reason she even made it into the royal court, was to help and protect her family.** _ **Now**_ **she discovers that her helping Azula, answering questions about what things were like in the EK and around Omashu (which her dad was the governor of), has directly contributed to the upcoming demise. So yeah she goes and gets drunk and then, seeking a safe place to do so first, has her own little meltdown. AFTER however she is prepared for the kicking of ass and the literal taking of names!**

 **Ozai &Co. have done FUCKED UP.**

 **What IS wrong with Azula?:** **In order to discuss what is UP with Azula (as I will now be doing), we need to define two terms the first of which is Borderline Personality Disorder, and the second is Gaslighting.  
**

 **Borderline Personality Disorder is a mental illness marked by "an ongoing pattern of varying moods, self-image, and behavior." Other symptoms include "Efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment" "Distorted and unstable self-image or sense of self" "Intense and highly changeable moods" and "Difficulty trusting." Sound familiar? It should, cause that's how I've been trying to write Azula. Again, to restate, I am not a medical professional. All my medical knowledge comes from TV crime drama and Google, so if YOU are a med-student or beyond feel free to correct me.**

 **The Second term is Gaslighting which refers to the systematic destruction of another's sanity. Ozai is** _ **deliberately**_ **driving his daughter insane "Using persistent denial, misdirection, contradiction, and lying." So, WHY is he doing that you ask. For several reasons, I answer. One, he has created in his daughter one of the most dangerous people in the world, should SHE challenge him to an Agni Kai he cannot be certain that he would win. So he destabilizes her, makes her absolutely fundamentally convinced that HE, Ozai, is the only thing that matters. Reality? Less important that the will of the Fire-Lord. He, being a master manipulator, turns her own big brain against her. Second, Ozai is himself insane. And he KNOWS it. He is entirely aware of the thing in his head, but he thinks that it makes him STRONGER. It doesn't, and I have never tried to write it that way, but I think Ozai would see strength in a loss of morality. Strength which he is trying to spread to his daughter as well.**

 **Such Evil. Much Madness.**

 **Bonus points for reading my long-ass author note, thanks again, and have a happy new year!**

 **See you in 2019!**

 **.**

 **.**

 **NEXT WEEK on a very special "Avatar: The Last Dragon"...**

 **Zuko experiences the world's most amicable break-up, then rides around in a balloon.**

 **TUNE IN. Same Zuko time, Same Zuko channel!**

 **Original post date: 30 December 2018**


	6. The Day of Black Sun

**A/N:** **The Following is Rated R; for Revolution.**

 **It contains dialog, where appropriate, from S3E10 &11 of the same name.**

 **Reader discretion is advised.**

* * *

Chapter 6 "The Day of Black Sun."

* * *

 **Early Spring, year 12 in the reign of Fire-Lord Ozai**

"What is this?" Mai said, picking up a sealed scroll off of Zuko's desk with her name on it.

Zuko was on his balcony, arms behind his back, watching the Sun sink below the horizon. "You will 'find' that on your pillow tomorrow evening," he said, not turning around.

There was the sound of breaking wax as Mai opened the scroll, then silence as she read.

"You're breaking up with me… in a LETTER?" she hissed, suddenly very audibly angry as she stalked across the room towards Zuko.

"…What? I… that… I thought that was part of the plan!" Zuko said, whipping around greatly anticipating being thwacked in the head at her sudden surprising ire. "'Breaking up' was _your_ idea."

After a rather vehement argument, which of course Mai had won, she had decided to stay behind in Otosan Uchi and play the role of double agent. Despite all the good and logical points she had made regarding the necessity of it, Zuko was still quite worried for her.

Not to mention incredibly impressed by her bravery.

"But a LETTER?" Mai said, her eyes narrowed as she brandished the offending document at her soon-to-be ex-fiancé. "What sort of coward breaks off a betrothal with a _letter_?"

"How… how else was I supposed to do it?" Zuko said, now mildly nervous. "If I had told you to your face you would have been expected to fight me!"

"Well… you could have just said it was over for _other_ reasons. You didn't have to mention-" she waved the second page in Zuko's face- " _this_ part."

"But… but that would have been… dishonest."

Mai rolled her eyes. "I take it back, this was the _perfect_ way to do it. It just goes to show what an idiot you are."

"Uh… thank you?"

She shook her head in consternation and moved to stand beside him on the balcony, grumbling about "letters" and "idiots" as she read through the second page. Zuko, now reasonably sure that Mai wasn't going to start hitting him about the head, resumed his contemplation of the sunset.

"Cliché and overdramatic," she said after she finished it. "Typical Zuko."

"I thought it was powerful and rather moving," Zuko said eyeing her askance.

"Of course you did. Idiot." Despite her words she actually managed to sound rather fond at that point. "This is the final draft?"

Zuko grunted in affirmation. "Bo and Rin already have half a million copies on a ship, they'll arrive at the port of Echizen in two days, weather permitting."

"And the hawks are-"

"Ready to fly. I'll give the word tomorrow before I-"

"We talked about this Zuko," she said, now actually sounding faintly worried as she cut him off. "You don't need to tell the man to his face. There is nothing in the law that says you have to."

"I _have_ to," Zuko said simply. "If I cannot, then there is no point to _any_ of this. I _have_ to face my father. I have to face the _Fire-Lord_."

At that pronouncement they both grew quiet and stared out at the setting sun, the last rays bathing the city below them in red light.

"I am going to miss you, Mai," Zuko said softly.

"I'll miss you too," she answered back and then turned to go.

"Be safe, and be careful," Zuko said over his shoulder.

"I'm _always_ careful," Mai said, actually smiling faintly as she looked back at him.

As she shut the door behind her the last light of the dying day disappeared behind the Temple of the Ancestors and darkness fell across the land.

And then, if only in Zuko's mind at the moment, the _war_ began.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Zuko could feel it coming the very moment he woke the next morning. The Great Darkness was _coming_ and Zuko could feel the power than normally sang through his veins begin to waver and gradually diminish as it approached.

The Black Sun was coming.

Like many others on that day, Zuko went to the Temple of the Ancestors seeking solace and spiritual contemplation. His route would also, not at all coincidentally, take him right by several of the largest hawkeries in the city, many of which had been suborned, and in some cases bribed, to his purpose.

Every building he exited almost immediately began to belch a multitude of messenger hawks, all sending the same letter to every corner of the compass.

The Temple of the Ancestors was full to bursting today, full of the somber reverent crowd that always filled the place in times of uncertainty. As Zuko entered the main hall, people smiled and bowed, a few more joyful souls even raised a ragged cheer. He _was_ the Crown-Prince after all, the Prince of Fire, and the ostensible hero of _"The Adventures of the Prince of Fire,"_ adored by the middle and lower classes as a beacon of honor and the possibility of redemption.

Zuko briefly wondered what they would think of him _tomorrow_.

He strode, no longer hesitant, to the center of the temple and his ancestral shrine. Others who had come to pray directly to Akodo himself saw him coming and stood aside gladly. No one would dare to stand between a samurai and his ancestors. Reaching the ring he dropped to one knee and, one fist grounded on the tiles before the grey ashy mound of his ancestors, he began to pray.

 _Honored ancestors, this is most likely the last time I will speak to you here in this place. I go now to face my father, and to lead any with enough honor and courage to stand with me against him. I ask your forgiveness for my treason. I ask your forgiveness for all that I must do in the name of honor. I will REDEEM us, Akodo, though it cost me my life. I know that I may soon join you and so humbly ask that you make a place ready for me at your side. I come HOME, Akodo, and I bring all the honor that I can carry._

The sounds in the temple around him, which had been quietly noisy in the way a crowded space always is, fell suddenly hushed as he finished. A soft ringing began to fill his ears and beneath, alongside, and on top of it…

…was the SONG.

It had been so long since he had heard it, so long since he had been truly certain of _anything,_ that it nearly knocked him off his feet. The feeling of his slowly diminishing firebending was _nothing_ next to the glorious swelling triumph that surged through his heart and soul.

 _Is a samurai defined by his bending then?_ Iroh had asked, an eternity ago.

 _No, Uncle,_ Zuko had replied. _A samurai is defined by bushido and by his honor._

Zuko had honor.

His father had _none_.

And in that moment Zuko was certain that he would have victory, one way or the other. He _would_ stop his father from shaming the entire line of Akodo and restore the family's honor, tarnished so long ago by Sozin's madness and betrayal.

Certainly, his whole plan wasn't the wisest, safest course of action. Certainly, it would have been easier to simply let his father have his way. Certainly, the whole thing was entirely unreasonable.

 _Honor before reason!_ His ancestors roared.

"And _death_ before _dishonor,_ " Zuko said back.

Akodo Zuko, samurai of the Lion, rose to his feet and, propelled forward by the voices of his ancestors, walked out of the temple to find his destiny.

…and as soon as he set foot outside, alarm gongs started going off across the entire city.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

 _Unbelievable,_ Zuko thought, his hand flying to his katana. _I come so far only to be…_

But no one was coming for him. No royal guards surrounding and detaining him, no Azula cackling in insane malicious glee, no Mai, turned traitor as a tiny ever-paranoid part of him still insisted she would.

The citizens of the capital were moving quickly and purposefully through the streets, typical of the Fire-Nation in an emergency, but no one paid him any mind.

It seemed the alarm _wasn't_ for him.

Off to the east, below the Sun, the Moon now hanging perilously close, Zuko could see smoke beginning to rise from the port on the Bay of Flames. The entire bay was _supposed_ to be a safe zone, protected by the incredible Gates of Azulon, a great burning wall of oil, iron chain, and stone pylons carved in the likeness of Azulon himself and many of the other most famous Fire-Lords. It was a tremendous bulwark against a naval invasion and a testament to the respect Zuko's grandfather had had for the warriors of the Water-Tribes.

A bulwark which had apparently been breached, allowing someone to attack the capital from the sea.

An instinctive snarl rose to Zuko's lips and he took several unconscious steps towards the columns of smoke before he remembered himself.

 _I have my own duties to attend to._ _There is no way that anyone will breach the city,_ he thought pulling himself back together and refocusing on the task ahead.

 _Who in the ashpits could it be?_ He wondered as he broke into a light jog, weaving his way through rapidly deploying soldiers on his way back to the palace. _A coup? One of the other families got wind of father's madness and decided to strike first? Mai would be PISSED, she was CERTAIN that nobody had any plans. Or maybe it's the Crane? Finally come for vengeance after Zhao's blasphemy?_ Zuko's brow furrowed as he ran past several members of the palace guard, still at their posts and bowing formally as he passed.

 _Honestly, who could it be? Who would be stupid enough to attack on the day that we KNOW we are vulnerable?_

At the moment there was only one person Zuko could reasonably think of.

 _It's HIM,_ he thought, a sneer coming to his face as he continued to jog through the now empty corridors of the palace. _Who else likes to step in and ruin all my carefully laid plans? The Sun-blighted Avatar._

 _You're just mad because he's stealing your thunder,_ a voice like Mai's said in his head. _Your honored grandfather said to seek him out, in that way you would be redeemed. He said it was your destiny._

 _What could the boy possibly offer me? He's a monk! What does he know of war?_

… _Apparently,_ he answered himself, _he knows where all of father's enemies are. And the enemy of my enemy…_

"Is my _friend_ ," he said aloud as he finally arrived at his rooms.

He had already packed for a journey, mulling most of the night over what exactly he would be needing, but now instead of the sedate dignified walk to confront his father he would have to hoof it. He growled to himself, muttering imprecations, and half-hearted threats as he threw on his armor, the black set his sister had given him and, after a moment of hesitation, he put the ceremonial crown that had belonged to both Sozin and Roku in his topknot as well.

The last thing he did was go to his desk, to a small secret compartment in its topmost drawer, and pull out a plain grey-blue stone still on a woven red band.

He stared at it silently for a long moment, rubbing his thumb over the face of the stone, before awkwardly shoving it into the small pocket on the inside of his armor.

 _Here's hoping that if she kills me she kills me quickly,_ he thought smiling to himself as he swept out of the room, black cloak billowing behind him.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

The Royal Family's bunker was deep under the palace, deeper even than the undercroft of the Temple of the Ancestors. The path inside the now empty throne room seemed to go down forever and the red light from Zuko's palm of fire seemed to grow dimmer with each passing moment.

 _Well at least that stage-stealing bastard has a good sense of timing,_ Zuko thought in bitter amusement.

He made it to the great iron doors that marked the entrance to the complex and was admitted quickly, his armor unremarked upon given the attack on the capital. He strode down the halls to his father's personal redoubt, steeling his mind in anticipation as he reached the great bronze doors that marked the throne room under the mountain.

"I'm ready to face you," he whispered, putting down his rucksack and settling his nerves, the voices of his ancestors still singing to him as he threw open the doors.

"FATHER! I have come to… _Azi_?"

 _The ash is she doing here?_

"Zuzu? What are _you_ doing here?" Azula said sitting up straight from her slouch on the large throne that dominated the audience room.

"Where is father?" Zuko said, ignoring the question.

"Why?" she said eyeing him suspiciously.

"We need to have a talk."

"...It's about the Avatar, isn't it? He was seen flying around the city before everyone took shelter. Father is going to be _so_ annoyed." She said it dryly, projecting confidence and unconcern in her tone and posture, but Zuko could see one of her hands give a small tremble.

Father really _was_ going to be annoyed.

 _Don't worry Azi, I'm about to give him something to be REALLY pissed off about._

"Where _is_ he?" Zuko asked again.

"The smaller bunker at the other side of the complex. I had a hunch that there would be an attack today and a small change for extra security never hurt."

"Indeed," Zuko said, taking a large breath. "Goodbye, Azula." He turned and stalked away.

"Goodbye?" she called from behind him, "Seems a bit final don't you thi-" she was cut off as Zuko closed the door behind him.

Zuko quickly grabbed his rucksack and, moving double-time, headed towards the small bunker, usually reserved for the Fire-Lord's younger children.

 _Here's hoping I have enough time._

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

 _Ok,_ Zuko thought, a hint of mirth in his inner voice, _NOW I'm ready to face you._

He stood before a much plainer iron door, trying to catch his breath and reestablish that calm poise and dignity he had had before.

It wasn't working, he was just irritated.

The Avatar was here, attacking his home and _really_ muddying the waters where his plans were concerned, and now Zuko had just had to sprint almost a mile to make it here in time for the actual eclipse.

And now that he thought about it, his father was here essentially _hiding_ behind his little sister, sheltering in the bunker that she should have been in just in case their enemies broke through.

 _Coward._

He dropped his rucksack next to the door and cracked his neck in a slow circle.

 _Fine. Here goes nothi-_

A powerful wave of nausea hit him suddenly with all the force of a typhoon. Everything was suddenly back to front, upside down, inside out and inverted. Zuko locked his knees to keep from falling over.

It also felt an awful lot like he had been kicked in the testicles.

 _The SUN is out,_ a voice whispered in his mind. _The Sun is OUT and the SHADOWS come._ Zuko's hackles rose in superstitious dread, whispered campfire stories from long ago suddenly blooming in his mind. The Shadowmen, The Bloodspeakers, The Tainted Oni; ancient horrible legends from ancient days.

He shook his head, inhaling deeply and clearing his mind. _You are not a child to be jumping at spirits,_ he chided himself.

 _Yeah, you're just an idiot about to declare war on his own father! Get a grip!_

He scowled, then reached out and pulled the doors open.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"Prince Zuko? What are you doing here?" Fire-Lord Ozai said, putting down the cup of tea he had been drinking.

The audience chamber in this section of the bunker was much smaller than the last one. Ozai sat on a cushion on a raised dais instead of a throne, separated from his son by a line of the Royal Guard.

"We need to _talk,_ father."

"A _talk?_ " Ozai said with a glower. "In the middle of an _eclipse_? This should be _interesting_."

His yellow eyes still locked on his son as he waved his hand imperiously, dismissing the guards. After a moment the room was entirely empty save for the two of them, still staring at one another. Staring at their near mirror image.

A mirror image in a funhouse mirror.

One reflection was handsome and unmarked, a long goatee, black and red robes displaying the power and wealth of the man beneath the golden five-pointed crown of fire. The other reflection's face was half mangled, with a close-cropped beard. His black armor, for all of its youth, bore the unmistakable marks of battle, displaying his profession for any to see.

The two Akodos faced one another, entirely identical scowls below three matching yellow eyes on their hauntingly similar faces, separated by no more than ten feet and a gulf wider than Nations.

"First of all, I must report that the Avatar is not dead," Zuko said calmly. "He _survived_ apparently."

"WHAT!?" Ozai roared.

"In fact, he is most likely leading this invasion. He could be on his way here right now."

"Get out!" Ozai shouted, leaping to his feet. "Get out of my sight, _right now_ , if you know what's good for you!"

"And _that_ would be the other thing. I am _DONE_ taking orders from you," Zuko snarled.

"You will obey me, or this defiant breath will be your _last_ ," Ozai hissed, eyes narrowing.

"I think not," Zuko spat, "The Sun is _out_ , father, and I will speak my mind."

Ozai stared imperiously at his son, his yellow eyes trying to strip Zuko of his resolve. The fear of him washed over Zuko and tried to find a grip on his heart.

It failed.

Zuko could feel the weight of the crown on his head and the subtle pressure of a stone necklace at his chest, he could still hear the SONG, and those three things were far more powerful than anything his father could do to him.

"For so long, all I wanted was to do the right thing," Zuko began, voice calm yet ringing with conviction. "All I _ever_ wanted was to serve my lord as a samurai should. I thought it was my honor I wanted, but really, I was just trying to please you. My honor is my own, and it always has been. I know now that _I_ have honor. Unlike YOU, my father, who banished me just for talking out of turn. My _father_ , who challenged a thirteen-year-old to the Agni Kai. How can you possibly justify a duel with a child?!"

"It was to teach you respect!" Ozai spat.

"It was _cruel,_ and without compassion. Where there is no mercy there can be no justice. How can anyone claim to rule without understanding?"

"You have learned NOTHING!" Ozai roared, unconsciously stepping forward.

"I have learned EVERYTHING," Zuko roared back, matching his father's step, the SONG still roaring along with him in his head. "And I had to learn it ALL on my own! YOU were supposed to teach me about honor! About justice! About our duty to our PEOPLE! Instead, you taught me nothing but fear and shame! Lies and cowardice! And I. AM. DONE!"

"You have my _permission_ to commit seppuku," Ozai hissed, his lips contorted into a sneer.

"And you have MY permission to go FUCK YOURSELF!" Zuko snapped. "SENGOKU!"

Ozai went stock still, his eyes large in his head.

"By the right of my blood and the strength of my honor I declare myself in rebellion to the throne," Zuko said, intoning the formal words he had dug out of the dusty corners of the Royal Library, his blood roaring in his ears. "I declare that YOU, Ozai, son of Azulon and Ilah, are no _fit_ Fire-Lord. I say that you have forsaken your vows, taken leave of your senses, and have no right to rule, no authority to command, and no power over ANY of us."

"You _dare?_ " Ozai whispered, still seeming frozen in place.

"After I leave here today," Zuko said his voice winding up into a rant, "I will free my uncle from his prison and the two of us, along with anyone else who isn't stupid enough to stand by _you_ , are going to _tear you APART!_ You honorless, faithless, MADMAN!"

"You _DARE?_ " Ozai repeated.

"I will have my VENGEANCE!" Zuko screamed. "For six years wasted in honorless exile, for a _lifetime_ of wasted effort and lies. For my MOTHER, you murderous piece of-"

Zuko was caught up in the SONG, caught up in a near fever as all the things he had never even known he wanted, practically _needed_ , to say to his father spilled out of him like water from a burst dam.

So caught in the voices of his ancestors was he that he didn't even feel the sweet singing hum as the _fire_ crept back into his body. So full of terrible wrath he didn't even notice the change in his father.

Ozai seemed to have been frozen solid once Zuko had said "Sengoku."

…but then his hands had started _shaking._

As Zuko called him a madman to his face, that face had begun to contort wildly, his teeth in a snarling rictus of a grin.

And when Zuko had said "Mother…"

"RAAAAGGGH!" Ozai screamed, completely deranged, both arms swinging forward, both carrying _lightning_.

Time seemed to slow to a crawl as Zuko realized the situation he was in, lightning gathering at his father's fingertips. But it was his _eyes_ that Zuko truly noticed. All the other symptoms he had known from his own experience with the madness, but the _eyes_ …

There, dancing in the very center of Ozai's pupils, were tiny red flames, like gateways into the deepest pits of Jigoku, where lived the demons and oni. His pupils contracted and expanded wildly, out of sync with one another, as he thrust twin bolts of lightning at his son.

 _This is what they saw,_ Zuko thought in that interminable length of a long second. _This is what Katara saw in your eyes, the last thing the people of Matomo saw as you burned them alive._

The thing inside Zuko sprang forward, one rabid hound spotting another, intent on blood.

 _In one arm,_ Iroh whispered, _down into the stomach… and out the other arm._ And Zuko thrust the mad thing into the recesses of his mind and his left arm forward.

 **CRACK-a-BOOOOM!**

Lightning.

 _Spirits, it BURNS! It burns like…_

Lightning.

… _into the stomach! It has to go IN the…_

Lightning.

… _killed my MOTHER you BASTARD!_

 **Lightning.**

Zuko's arms cramped wildly as the electricity surged into him, forcing him backwards a few paces.

In one arm… down into the stomach… and _out_ the other.

The lightning roared wild, singing the tips of his fingers as it entered and _exited_ Zuko, slamming into the floor at Ozai's feet flinging him backwards.

Every primal instinct Zuko had screamed at him to draw his sword and _end it_ , just kill his father right there and then, but the rational part of him knew better. Killing him now would just be a coup, a dishonorable clandestine act that would only dishonor him and see an equally mad Azula on the throne instead. Zuko could not strike him down on the Day of Black Sun, no matter the circumstances. He needed to bring the truth of his father's evil to the light of the Sun. He needed to give his people a chance to either stand in defiance or to choose blind duty and dishonor.

 _Besides,_ Zuko thought, spinning on his heel and exiting the chamber, _having his own son turn his back on him is REALLY going to piss him off._

That _alone_ might have been worth it.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Ignoring the faint tremor in his limbs from retreating adrenaline and electric shock, Zuko flew up the corridors and back into the palace. He had requisitioned a war-balloon several weeks ago to "evaluate their fitness to his personal satisfaction," and after he had achieved a rough competency in its operation he had stashed it in one of the more infrequently used palace gardens. Once he got there it was only the work of minutes to remove its camouflage, stoke the boiler, and become airborne.

As he rose through the spires of the palace into the skies above Otosan Uchi he noted that the new air-corps had been scrambled from their construction area on the western side of the mountain. A vast multitude of balloons like his and the half dozen finished battle blimps filled the sky with red and grey, they're eyes fixed on the east and the attack on the capital, completely ignorant of the now-rebel Prince that joined them.

Zuko's eyes were fixed on a different direction as well; south.

Towards the Spire.

After a few tense minutes he managed to land his balloon before the tower prison and lept out, one hand on his sword hilt. Oddly, it looked as though the prison had already taken battle damage despite the bulk of the fight being conducted some ways still east of here.

Zuko grew more and more concerned as he sprinted through the prison passing the bodies of fallen guards and a variety of scorch marks. Did somebody come for his uncle? An old enemy? Perhaps he…

Zuko reached the topmost cell, found the door ajar, and after running inside discovered that's Iroh cell had been _completely_ demolished, the metal bars bent outward as though his aged uncle had simply _punched_ his way free.

 _Well… shit,_ Zuko thought. He paused for a moment, mostly just admiring how very apt the phrase "no plan survives the first arrow" was as he stared at the place where his uncle should have been. Then he turned around and stalked back out of the prison and to his war-balloon. He couldn't do anything else there, and if his uncle wanted to find him Zuko had no doubt that he would be able to do so. Soon the whole planet would know what Zuko had done, and it was unlikely that Iroh would remain unaware of the first Sengoku in over eleven-hundred years.

 _I just hope he thinks I made the right choice,_ he thought as he clambered back into his balloon. He shoved his worry into the back of his mind, finding the space now remarkably empty, as he rose into the sky.

Once he was airborne, he took in the now developing battle there, mind assessing and analyzing. Streaks of fire reigned down at an enemy that was attempting to scale the eastern face of the mountain, some few were instead sending fire at two tiny figures that darted around the lot of them, like sparrowkeets spinning around lumbering vulture-wasps.

A yellow and orange figure on a glider, and a blue-clad figure on what could only be a heavily armored sky-bison.

 _Ash and bone, how in the names of all my ancestors am I going to DO this?_ Zuko thought, his eye narrowed at the aerial battle. _I was REALLY hoping uncle would have a good idea._

The two figures seemed to be doing remarkably well against the war-balloons. Ice and water cleaved through ropes and airbags, while the Avatar simply dove glider first through them, popping them and sending them careening down to the rough stone of the city below.

 _So, war-balloons: very vulnerable to nimble aerial combatants. Good to know._

Katara and the Avatar did not seem to be having much luck against the absolutely massive battle-blimps however. The blimp's volley fire made getting close enough to do anything problematic but, by the same token, they seemed to be having trouble hitting tiny fast-moving targets. Missed shots rained down on the city below and Zuko could even see the, _extremely_ well-trained, Otosan Uchi fire brigade moving to combat the growing fires.

 _I swear I am going to find whoever scrambled the air-corpse before they went through training and put their head on a spike._ "Clear your sectors of FIRE you idiots!" he yelled aloud, well out of hearing range and to absolutely no effect.

The two figures, eventually thinking better of their ineffectual attack on the blimps, retreated back to the east to the main body of troops. The blimps pursued and, once they had passed over the edge of the caldera, they began to drop tiny packets from their bottoms.

Packets that _exploded_ in an earth-shaking boom audible even from where Zuko was.

 _Kayaku!? Are those fucking kayaku bombs? THAT'S where all the money was going?_

Zuko had been trying, without too much success, to investigate the expenditures involved in the air-corps project almost as soon as he had gotten ahold of the treasury. The funds spent there were astronomical and now Zuko had an idea of why. Kayaku was an explosive powder made from a combination of charcoal and sulfur, which the Fire-Nation had in abundance, and a substance called "Kuni Salt," which they did not. It was extremely costly to purchase in that the only people who could harvest the stuff were earthbenders, very few of which, for obvious reason, wanted to work with the Fire-Nation.

 _Damn them,_ Zuko thought bitterly. _Bankrupting the Nation to build weapons that we didn't even NEED._

Well, they would be needing them now of course, and Zuko was going to have to figure out what to do about them.

 _So. My opponent has control of the skies, and an entirely non-firebending method of causing widespread devastation. Fan-fucking-tastic._

The blimps had finished their bombing run and continued on, past the enemy forces, towards the sea.

 _Probably going to destroy whatever craft they came in. Seal off their retreat._

As Zuko pondered, the airships dropped another payload of bombs at the docks and within minutes Zuko saw Appa rise off the ground and fly away, his back full of figures. Zuko angled his blimp in the same direction then pulled out his map to cast a rough heading along the direction they had gone.

… _The Western Air Temple,_ he thought blithely, _of course they'd go there._

Well… so would he.

* * *

 **A/N: Good morning fic-fans and welcome back to THIS, the greatest and best fanfic ever published… today… in this time-zone… concerning Akodo!Zuko… (there I think that should be specific enough)**

 **Hope you enjoyed it and, as always, if you did or didn't drop me a line and tell me about it.**

 **On that note, I would like to take a moment to thank those of you who are reviewing on FFN, but doing so either anonymously, or with your PM turned off. Thank you very much! You all have been great! For those of you on the other side of the internet (ao3) you keep on doing what you do! Know that if I don't respond to your comments it's not because I haven't read/appreciated them, it just that there isn't anything to say but THANKS (yes in all caps) and I also know a lot of people like to sort by comments and have been known to J'ACCUSE people of "inflating their counts" by responding to everything. Nobody wants that.**

 **In any case, you are ALL freaking awesome.**

 **I never** **MET a BIT** **I didn't like! (HA getit?)**

 **The Day of Black Sun:** **It was one of those things that I never got while watching Atla the first time, most likely because I was a bit older than the "intended" audience (audience in quotes because regardless of being a kid's show it DID deal with a lot of serious adult themes, probably why I liked it so much). One; why would a solar eclipse, which as you probably all know is only in very small locations a** _ **complete**_ **eclipse, rob firebenders the world over of their powers. There is some strange, non-Euclidian geometry going on in the Atla world. For myself, I like to handwave that as "magic" and call it good, but it still is a bit odd.**

 **Two; who in their right mind thinks that the Fire-Nation, the first (or at least very close second) most technological power in the world is NOT going to be able to predict a solar eclipse and prepare for it? Apocryphally the first predicted eclipse IRL was in the 6** **th** **century… BC! So yeah a bunch of sun** _ **worshipers**_ **are going to know what's going down and** _ **when.**_ **The idea that the FN are not going to have a countermeasure is ridiculous.**

 **Come on Sokka! Get your shit together man! (although he might have used all his smarts by inventing the submarine, I guess it's a push)**

 **Sengoku:** **The Sengoku Jidai is the name of the warring states period of Japan, an over one-hundred-year period of internecine warfare and political skullduggery in the 15** **th** **16** **th** **and 17** **th** **centuries. I have, for strategic narrative purposes, taken the term and forged it into world-buildingTM. I figure that an autocratic nation that has lasted for 10,000 years (roughly using the stated chronology of LoK and then discarding most of the rest of it) has to have SOME method of letting off steam. I also am highly amused at the idea of a** _ **formalized**_ **legal method of declaring rebellion.**

 **Leave it to the FN (or at least my interpretation thereof)**

 **Vengeance for Mom :** **Zuko has been repressing. Been repressing a LOT of shit for a very VERY long time. Well, repress no more, my son! So, in typical Zuko fashion, there is a lot of shouting, followed by explosions. Hell, even** _ **I**_ **feel better after reading it.**

 **Turn his back:** **Much like Roku with Sozin, turning your back on your opponent, having left them alive is explicitly an insult in the FN. You consider them so non-threatening that you are willing to turn your back to them. Zuko's last dig at his father before running off.**

 **Iroh's escape:** **I still have absolutely NO idea how Iroh did this. I assume that there was magic and/or white lotus accomplices or something. I also like the idea that he just freaking punched his way to freedom.**

 **The old man is STILL Zuko's uncle after all.**

 **Kuni Salt:** **There are three elements to gunpowder originally; charcoal, sulfur, and potassium-nitrate or salt-peter. As we all know, "or** _ **should**_ **know," the history education major said glaring at you over his glasses, gunpowder originates in China. Frequently, because Europeans are bad at naming things, saltpeter was referred to as "china salt." As the EK is my quasi-china analog here obviously I am going to give them the nod. It also is my, in my brain only, reason why there weren't any gunpowder weapons before this. EK had one component, FN had the other. Never mind that saltpeter can be produced via manure and such. Pay no attention to the chemistry behind the curtain!**

 **That's it weary travelers! I hope you have had a good time here and, so far, a very acceptable new year!**

 **.**

 **.**

 **NEXT WEEK on a very special "Avatar: The Last Dragon"...**

 **Zuko prepares a speech and then has his ass handed to him.**

 **TUNE IN. Same Zuko time, Same Zuko channel!**

 **Original post date: 6 January 2019**


	7. The Western Air Temple

**A/N:** **The Following is Rated S; for Speeches.**

 **It contains dialog, where appropriate, from S3E12 of the same name.**

 **Reader discretion is advised.**

* * *

Chapter 7 "The Western Air Temple"

* * *

 **Early Spring, year 12 in the reign of Fire-Lord Ozai**

Zuko had time.

Probably more time than was strictly necessary, sitting alone in his commandeered war-balloon, considering just _how,_ in the Sun's holy name, he was supposed to convince his former enemies to join him.

…Or to let him join _them_.

…Or something.

As he floated along, his mind conjured and discarded any number of possible strategies, logical arguments, and impassioned rhetoric. He hypothesized hundreds of opening statements and worked through, what he thought, were reasonable counter-arguments.

He had brought books with him, historical references and even, somewhat fortunately, one on oratory. Despite being woefully old (it still spoke in terms of thou and thine) it proved helpful in organizing his thoughts.

Figuring out just what, in the burning ashy pits of _despair,_ he was going to _say_ to them.

To _her._

 _It is said that the greatest ally one can have is a former enemy. To gain intimate knowledge of oneself and…_

No. The Avatar was a monk. He'd probably be _insulted_ if Zuko implied that he had no self-awareness.

 _I come to you a humbled man. Wiser in mind than ever before, and sure in the knowledge that…_

No. Perhaps something _less_ contrite? Would they even believe him _capable_ of contrition? Katara certainly wouldn't, she knew him better than that.

 _Join with ME, and together we will rule the world as…_

No. Definitely not… What would Uncle say?

" _Zuko, you have to look within yourself, to save yourself, from your other self. Only then, will your true self, REVEAL itself."_

Absolutely ridiculous. How about…

 _In the fifth year of the reign of Fire-Lord Oda, Earth-Kingdom refugees and Fire-Nation soldiers stood arm in arm against the Warlord Chin's marauding armies…_

Ok. That wasn't too bad. International cooperation. He could DO historical.

There was an abundance of time, the last trajectory Zuko had taken from Appa had put them right on course for the hidden Western Air Temple and Zuko could follow along behind with a minimum of effort.

So, a slew of books to hand, Zuko began to take notes.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

 _DAMNIT. Where in the ashpits are they?_

Zuko had chased the Avatar across the entire world, on every continent and nearly every terrain type. He was _supposed_ to have a good sense of where he would go and why. The Western Air Temple had made complete sense. It was well hidden (it had taken Zuko almost a month to find it, hanging upside-down on the underside of a cliff, the first time he had come here) and the boy would be reeling after his defeat at Otosan Uchi. He would come here and seek solace and comfort in the places of his people. It was completely and _totally_ reasonable that they should BE here.

 _So where in the ashpits ARE they!?_

Zuko had been pacing through the hallways and chambers of the deserted temple for more than an hour, the notes and references for his speech now clenched in his gauntleted hand, and he had yet to find ANY sign of them.

 _Perhaps they caught a glimpse of the war-balloon and diverted? Perhaps they're not as dumb as they used to be?_

… _DAMNIT._

In a burst of frustration Zuko threw his speech notes on the ground where, almost immediately, they were caught up in one of the many errant gusts of wind that were the sole occupants of the Air Temple. They were then carried up and over the edge of the cliff, into the seemingly bottomless canyon which abutted the edge of the upside-down temple.

His uncle had been enthralled by the view when they had been here last, more than three years ago. The errant chaotic breezes whipped through the spars of stone in the canyon and made interesting whirls and patterns in the perpetual mists that floated and hung in the space. Zuko hadn't appreciated the sight the last time he had been here, bitter, and sullen as he had been about the presumed pointlessness of his quest.

 _Now_ he thought he understood what his uncle had seen. All of the elements were here; watery mist, earthen spires, swirling wind, and all illuminated by the light of Holy Sun. It was a breathtaking sight that would have given hope and inspiration to any artist of any stripe.

So, Zuko began to compose his death haiku.

Over the course of the long flight he had come to the conclusion that without the aid of his uncle's tactical brilliance, or the unexpected foreign allies he had hoped to gain here, his rebellion would be a short-lived thing. He was reasonably certain he could draw it out long enough to stop his father from massacring the entire Earth-Continent but, realistically speaking, unless he garnered far more support from his own people than he anticipated, he would _lose_.

But that was alright. He was prepared for death, and would go to it willingly, his honor intact and secure in the knowledge that he had done everything he could to stop his father's madness.

" _And above all, HONOR shall guide me." Maybe that's a good first line? …too many syllables. How about-_

He was startled out of his reverie by a familiar rumbling groan as Appa the sky-bison, _finally_ , soared over the edge of the cliff and landed less than a hundred yards away, further along the temple grounds and on a separate platform of stone from Zuko.

 _Oh shit,_ Zuko thought, his eye snapping to the last page of his notes which had _just_ disappeared over the edge of the cliff. Operating on instinct, he concealed himself behind a large pillar.

 _Damnit,_ he thought slamming his palm into his forehead.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Zuko remained as still as he could as the four of them, the Avatar, the Idiot, the Bandit, and his Ex-Girlfriend, argued with one another about their next move. Several other people who Zuko had never seen before had run off to explore the rest of the temple almost immediately after dismounting from Appa. Katara had had to practically drag the Avatar away by his ear so that he would stay and help.

Sokka, surprisingly showing a _non-_ idiot tendency, began loudly advocating that the Avatar should simply revert to the "old" plan, which apparently was to master all of the elements before Sozin's comet returned.

 _Wait… they KNOW about the comet? How in Akodo's name did they… no, never mind. If it's important I'll find out later._

The bulk of their discussion was primarily focused on where _exactly_ they were going to find the boy a firebending teacher. Which gave Zuko a _great_ idea.

 _This… this is GOOD! I know LOTS of firebenders! I'm sure there will be hordes of them whenever I regroup with Rin, and he can have his pick of the flaming litter!_

Then the Avatar said that he doubted that it would be possible to find a firebender willing to help him, and _just_ as Zuko was about to pounce on that excellent opening, the boy grabbed up his glider, announced that he was going "exploring," and took off into the air.

 _ASH and flaming BONE, does he always have to ruin everything?_ Zuko thought as he squatted back down behind his pillar.

He watched, irritation rapidly replacing nervousness, as the boy made loop-de-loops around the temple, laughing jubilantly. He was quickly pursued by his three compatriots, riding on Appa and shouting for him to come back and help them plan.

Irritation then rapidly changed to _horror_ as the Avatar made a sharp right turn and landed, followed by Appa, not twenty paces from Zuko. He managed to haul himself to his feet _just_ as Appa shifted out of the way, revealing him to his four former adversaries.

Who were obviously NOT pleased to see him.

"Uh… Hello! Zuko here," Zuko said lamely.

 _Oh ash, not this again._

The four heroes took battle stances, summoning their elements and drawing their weapons, all the while glaring at him.

Well, Toph only glared somewhere in his general _vicinity_ , but Katara more than made up for her. Zuko couldn't even look at _her_ , but he could feel the murderous intent coming off her like smoke off of a forest fire.

"So… I… uh…" Zuko began again, trying and failing to be cogent.

… _I really should have kept ahold of those notes._

Appa had ambled over next to him as he stuttered, and now took the opportunity to lick him.

"Uggh. Can you not _do_ that, creature? The smell is impossible to get out," Zuko said, scowling half-heartedly at the wooly beast. Despite his words he patted the bison amiably on the nose, the damnable thing had become rather affectionate after Zuko had freed him in Ba Sing Se.

The looks of fury transitioned into looks of confusion on the faces of the three that he _dared_ look at.

He couldn't look at Katara, not only did he not _deserve_ to look at her, it would only REALLY distract him from his purpose, and he felt that he already had quite enough trouble to be getting on with.

"Look… I know you must be… _surprised_ to see m-"

"Not really!" Sokka shouted, "Since you followed us all over the world!"

"Uh… Right. Yes. _That,_ " Zuko sputtered. "You see… about that… what I wanted to… uh… tell you, was… I… I'm here to _help._ And to become… uh… allies. And, if you wanted, I could find you a firebending teacher… uh… for… for you… the Avatar. See, what I-"

"You wanna WHAT now?" Toph exclaimed.

"Help? HELP?!" Sokka spat. "You can't possibly believe that any of us would _trust_ you, do you? How freezing stupid do you think we are? All you've ever done is try and hunt us down and capture Aang!"

"I freed your bison, in Ba Sing Se. Or does that not COUNT?" Zuko snapped, his temper rising.

"Appa _does_ seem to like him," Toph said quietly.

The bison in question licked Zuko again.

"He probably just covered himself in honey or something so that Appa would lick him. I'm not buying it," Sokka said with a dismissive gesture.

"Covered myself… in _honey?"_ Zuko said with a confused frown. "What sort of stupid plan- No, never mind. Look. I know that we… that you all have no reason to trust me. I've done some things in the execution of my duty that-"

"Your _duty?"_ Sokka shouted. "Like attacking my village. Or burning Kyoshi to the ground? Or… or… bringing the whole frostbitten Fire-Nation navy to the North Pole?!"

"That _wasn't_ thewhole navy, and it WASN'T my idea!" Zuko said, shouting back. "It was Zhao's, and he's dead! If I had had MY way, he'd have been dead months earlier. _That's_ why I was at Pouhai," he said his eye falling on the Avatar. "I was there to KILL him. But I don't suppose saving your life counts for anything, does it?!"

Sokka's mouth dropped open as he glanced at the boy.

" _You_ said we could have been friends, or was that just another _useless_ airbender platitude?" Zuko snarled.

 _Maybe… don't insult your potential allies?_

"Sorry. Sorry, that wasn't… I didn't… I am _trying_ to explain why I'm here, but I'm not very good at-"

"There is no way we can trust you after everything you have done," Aang said with a shake of his head. "You need to leave."

"Damnit, you're not listening. I need to-"

"Either you leave, or we attack," Sokka growled, brandishing a long Jian sword in Zuko's direction.

"Oh? You think you will manage better than LAST time, you-"

"Either you leave, right now, or I will kill you," Katara said, finally breaking her silence. Her voice was barely above a whisper, but it had more ice in it than all of the South Pole, and it froze Zuko in his tracks.

His eye, which had refused to look at her up to this point, found her face, and found it blank. The calm of the sea in the moments before the storm capsized your ship; the Painted Lady all over again.

 _I guess this is it then,_ Zuko thought, taking in her face for the last time, committing it to memory. _A lot of people are going to die because I can't talk to people._

Zuko bowed at the waist, spun on his heel, and stalked away.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Zuko's eye popped open at the sound of something moving near his camp.

He had raged and ranted after he had returned from his utterly disastrous meeting with the Avatar, bending blasts of flame that had consumed everything but his supplies in a twenty-foot radius around his grounded war-balloon. After he had vented, and found the closest approximation of calm he could manage anymore, he had decided to get a few hours of sleep before setting off to the Colonies to try and find Rin. So, after the Sun was down, he put his back to the war-balloon's hull, and fell into a fitful sleep, his armor still on, his katana upright between his crossed legs.

As long as he could remember he had been a light sleeper. Even before his sleep had become plagued with nightmares, he had been used to being roused at odd hours by his tutors and being on call in the dead of night in the Army. When he had lived as a ronin, sleeping light had become not just a matter of habit, but a matter of survival.

And now _something_ was moving near his camp and he was wide awake in an instant. He sat still for a moment, his breathing unchanged as he listened to see if it was an enemy, or just one of the many badger-frogs that seemed to be everywhere around the area.

He was just about to call out a challenge when, _suddenly_ , he was airborne.

A flattened stalagmite of stone had burst forth from the ground beneath him and lofted him into the air at great speed. He managed to land with a soft roll and leapt to his feet, immediately sprinting in whatever direction he was facing.

 _Can't stay still, earthbender will rip me apart if I do._

As he sprinted, the ground under one of his descending feet slid precariously out from under him, almost forcing him into the splits before he got his balance under him.

 _Oh ash, it's the Bandit,_ he realized, recognizing the move she had used on "the Boulder." _She sees with her FEET! Get OFF the ground!_

So, he made to leap up into a nearby tree.

But, in midflight, he discovered something rather unfortunate.

 _Trees_ were attached to the ground as well.

The tree which Zuko had been aiming for rocked backwards as if it had been on a hinge and then snapped forward, colliding with him forcefully and flinging him through the air back towards his campsite.

Mind in a daze, his body, trained by years upon years of muscle memory, managed to get him back to his feet, and to dodge a few volleys of stone for him. Shaking his head, he re-centered himself and with a shrugging downwards gesture he bent a ring of fire at his feet and then thrust it outward, igniting the as of yet unburned trees surrounding the clearing he had made. Rocks flew through the flames at him but, now forewarned by the momentary lapses in the fire he had bent, and deep in zanshin, he was able to dodge, and in some cases, a corona of fire at his fists and feet, to smash the rocks apart and send gouts of fire screaming back in the direction that they had come from.

"Come on, _Bandit!"_ Zuko roared, "is THAT all you've g-" he cut off sensing an odd tremor at his feet.

Much the same tremor that _Azula_ must have felt at Tu Zin.

Zuko wasn't nearly as quick as his sister, however, and so he was unable to dodge the tiny earthbender's uppercut as she burst from the ground at his feet. His head snapped back as the girl's fist crashed into his bearded chin, causing his teeth to click together as he fell backwards, tail over teapot, white spots clouding his vision.

 _Really should have seen that coming,_ he thought as his body arced through the air.

He fell to earth, knocked most of the way to senseless.

After his brain had stopped spinning around in his skull, he found himself in the unenviable position of having his hands and feet bent into immobility in the earth below him. Toph sat next to him on a small stool that she had bent out of the ground, trimming her fingernails… with his katana.

"Ya know, Snoozles has a sword kinda like this?" she said, sounding as though she were just making idle conversation.

"Wha-"

"Not _exactly_ the same of course, different metals all have different sorts of feels to 'em. But, to me, they're all so fucking… _bendy._ " And then, with only thumb and forefinger, she bent Zuko's ancestral blade to a near right angle.

Zuko winced horribly.

" _Oops,"_ Toph said sounding completely insincere. "Must be _terrible_ , having something so important get wrecked by someone else's carelessness. I don't suppose you'll cry much over a _fucking sword_ though."

"What are you-"

"You hurt my _friend_ , shitbrick," Toph snarled, and the earth around Zuko tightened painfully. "I kept my mouth shut and YOU hurt her so bad I thought she'd never recover. You should have heard her, weeping her eyes out for _weeks._ Everybody thought she was just worried about Aang, but I knew what must have happened. Here I had thought that you were in love with her. Just goes to show that even _my_ feet can be wrong sometimes."

 _How DARE she!_ Zuko could feel his hands, still locked in the earth, growing hot, fire itching to burst from them. …But that would serve no purpose. He had no right to be angry with the earthbender and he had other things that he needed to be doing.

"…Are you going to kill me, or are you just going to sit there _whining_ about things you don't understand?" Zuko growled after a moment of glaring pointlessly at the blind girl.

"What?" Toph squawked.

"Either _kill me,_ or go away, earther. I have a war to fight, and now that it's clear that you and your merry band of misfits aren't going to help, I have things I need to be doing."

"War? What war?"

"The civil war I started last week against my father," Zuko snapped.

Toph's mouth hung open for nearly a minute, then shut with an audible click. "So, you mean to tell me… that after _everything_ you _did_ to Katara… you went ahead and betrayed your father too? You've got to be shitting me!"

"Ash and bone, it's not like that!"

Toph made a rude noise with her lips. "Yeah? Tell me how you're anything but a gutless traitor, without an ounce of _loyalty_ to anyone or anything."

"I am loyal to my people," Zuko growled.

"Oh, and I suppose that _Katara_ doesn't count as 'your people.'"

"That isn't the point!" Zuko roared. "Damnit this is bigger than me and her, alright? This is about the whole world going up in flames! This is about my father planning murder on a scale unlike anything even _Sozin_ contemplated. This is about my country falling apart because the Fire-Lord is a lunatic! _So,_ either KILL ME, and put me out of my misery, or let me go so that I can at least TRY to stop him!"

"…Why didn't you say any of that when you were trying to talk to us before?"

"I don't know," Zuko said bitterly. "Maybe because every time I'm within ten paces of that woman my brain turns to MUSH!"

Toph cocked her head to the side in what Zuko gathered must be her equivalent of a stare. "Do you love her?"

"Not relevant," Zuko grumbled.

"Do you. Love. HER," Toph said, managing to sound grim despite her high-pitched voice.

"…Yes. I do," Zuko said quietly. "More than my own life, for as little as that's worth."

"Hmph," Toph grunted, wiggling her toes in the dirt by his side. "I don't know. Your sister was a pretty good liar. Unless she IS a four-hundred-foot-tall purple platypus-bear with pink horns and silver wings?"

"A… a what?"

"Nevermind. You're telling the truth, aren't you?"

"Yes."

"Cause you're a horrible liar."

"I… uh… yes?"

"She had mentioned that, once or twice," Toph offered.

"Oh?"

"She said it was _endearing_."

"Oh."

"What in the fuck is _wrong_ with you? How could you fucking…" Toph paused for a moment, thinking. "…Why don't _you_ tell me what happened under Ba Sing Se. I've only heard Sweetness's version, as little as that is, and maybe I owe it to you to hear you out as well."

"You don't owe me anything."

"Yeah, but I _do_ owe your uncle. He'd want me to hear you out. If I let you loose, you'll stay and talk." Nowhere in her voice was there even a hint that that last was a question.

"Yes. I will." And at his words the rock bindings sank back into the earth, freeing him.

"Make it fast and make it honest, I have about NO fucking patience for any badgershit," Toph said.

"We had a fight," Zuko said tersely. "She was mad because I had killed somebody, and I was mad because… I thought she was…" he cleared his throat, "cheating on me."

"The FUCK?" Toph shouted, immediately incensed. "Katara? Cheat on _you?_ Who in the shit would she even DO that with?"

"Jet," Zuko said, spitting the name like a curse.

"What, really? _That_ shit-head? You thought she would do something like that to you?"

"I… don't know. It just… it never made any sense why she was with someone like me in the first place. A part of me was convinced that she was just getting close to spy on me, gather information she could use to attack the Fire-Nation. It was stupid but-"

"Yes, it WAS stupid, you gravel-chewing hog-humper," Toph said, waving her arms in frustration. "You _know_ she loves you, why would you..."

"Uh… she never… actually… uh… _said_ she did. Love me, that is."

"…oh, that _bitch,"_ Toph said after a long pause.

"You will _not_ call her that," Zuko growled.

"She never even fucking said it?!" Toph shouted, ignoring him in favor of throwing her hands back into the air. "Un-fucking-believable! Stone and SPIT, she was supposed to… oh, that fucking sheep-chicken-shit little-"

"I… uh… kind of hoped that she _cared_ about me, because of all the… um… _things_ we did together, but she never actually _said_ it. I think she was about to, but…"

"But?"

"…That's when my uncle and the Avatar chose to make their _dramatic_ entrance," Zuko sighed. "And then she… she just…"

"Just what?"

"She just flew into his arms," Zuko said his face falling in remembrance. "Like he was the only thing that was important to her in that cave."

Toph sighed bitterly and sat thinking for a moment. "So, who'd you kill?" she said quietly.

"A Dai Li agent. I was trying to find your bison and my only lead was that the Dai Li had him. So I captured one, and when he told me what I wanted to know I gave him the honor of allowing him to commit seppuku."

"Wait, he killed _himself_?"

"Yes? He was an honorable man."

"...Katara _really_ doesn't like it when people get hurt or killed because of her."

"I am aware. She wasn't supposed to find out. I was just trying to get your damned bison so that she could leave, so that my sister wouldn't kill her. I _told_ her-"

"You ever think that maybe she didn't leave because she was worried about your sister killing _you_?"

Zuko blinked in shock. "…No. I didn't."

"Well that's what happened, flame-brain. Everybody else left the city to go see family or gurus or whatever, but she stayed, 'cause she was _worried_ about you _!_ And _then_ you have the _nerve_ to go ahead and betray her!"

"And what the ash was my other choice? Kill my sister? I just… I…"

"You could have done _nothing._ You could have just gone your own way or sat to the side or-"

"And _what?_ Watch them _kill_ one another? Watch the two people I care about tear each other apart? To the _pits_ with that!"

"You could have tried _talking_ to them."

"Are you _serious?"_ Zuko said barking an angry laugh. _"Neither_ of them EVER listens to me. And you've seen how good I am at PERSUADING people!"

"Yeah, you do kind of suck at it. You're not doing so bad now though, huh?"

"That's probably because you've pissed me off!" Zuko shouted, a puff of flame coming from his nose.

"Well, I guess you should bear that in mind the next time you try to convince somebody of something," Toph said, completely unimpressed by his volume. "How about you tell me about this whole 'world in flames' thing?"

"Why? It's not going to do me any good, is it? Katara will likely flay me alive if I go anywhere near the boy again."

"I think you underestimate _my_ powers of persuasion. Go on, entertain me," Toph said leaning backwards comfortably.

 _And why not?_ Zuko thought. _It's not like I have anything to lose._

"My father…" Zuko said with a heavy sigh, "is insane."

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"This is not going to work," Zuko growled, a pessimistic frown on his face.

"Yes it is. You underestimate-"

"Your powers of persuasion, yes, you've said. That doesn't mean that _my_ powers of persuasion-"

"Just stick to the script I gave you," Toph said genially. "Keep your temper under control, have that broadsheet thing ready to hand, and let ME do the rest of the talking."

"…and why _precisely_ do I have to carry you on my shoulders all the way there?"

"Because A) they're not going to attack you immediately if it means you'll drop me and B) because you burnt my fucking feet, DICK." From her perch on his shoulders, Toph bopped him on the top of the head.

"Foot. Singular. _Foot,_ " Zuko said glancing up at her. "Barely even that. It's _one_ of your toes."

"Which is a fact that you should be _proud of._ Not every firebender gets a chance to say they scored a hit on the _greatest earthbender in the world._ " She punctuated those words by continuing to bang her small fists on his head. "That ring of fire thing was pretty fucking sweet though, never felt anything like that. Where'd you pick it up?"

"It's a personal creation. Inspired by…" Zuko heaved a somewhat bitter sigh, "one of the moves you used in Gaoling, when you were kidnapped."

Perched on his shoulders, hands on her hips, Toph preened.

The two them continued bickering, in what Zuko was coming to suspect was a _good-natured_ manner, as they wound through the tunnels Toph had made when leaving the Air Temple. They eventually came to the end of those tunnels and into the light of a campfire with three forms huddled around it.

"Shit!" Sokka shouted. He leapt to his feet with somewhat surprising speed, pulling his Jian out in a fluid motion.

The Avatar was right behind him, bending himself to his feet and his staff into his hand. "Don't worry Toph, we'll save you!"

Katara said nothing, but Zuko belatedly noted that the area that held their campfire also held an enormous fountain, the contents of which had presently lifted into the air and formed a multitude of serrated icy blades.

 _This was a TERRIBLE idea,_ Zuko thought.

Toph, who obviously could not see the vast ocean of death beginning to hover their way, disagreed with that sentiment however. "Shut up idiots!" she said. She rapped her knuckles on Zuko's head again. "Go on flame-brain… say it."

Zuko sighed bitterly and began the speech that Toph had made him memorize before she bent his sword back into its original shape and agreed to help him.

"Let it be known to all," he began, his voice loud if completely dry and without any sincerity behind it, "that on this day, Akodo Zuko, prince of the Fire-Nation, was defeated in honorable combat by Beifong Toph, the greatest earthbender in the world. Truly, I am blessed to have been witness to so amazing a display of skill. Truly, we are _all_ blessed to exist in a world where we might _better_ ourselves from Toph's example. Thank you, oh mighty Toph, for your benevolence, mercy, and understanding. I can only one day hope to be _half_ the bender and warrior that you are."

Toph's face split into a wide grin. "I could have stood for a little less sarcasm but, thank you, Zuko." She then ruffled his loose hair, much as though congratulating a puppy who had learned a new trick.

 _I hate this plan,_ Zuko thought, scowling.

Sokka had started laughing rather loudly somewhere in the middle of his pronouncement and Aang had dropped his attack stance, a rather bewildered if amused look on his face. Katara, however, hadn't moved a muscle, her eyes were still flat with barely suppressed fury, blades of ice hanging over her shoulders still primed and ready.

"I am not good at this sort of thing," Zuko grumbled quietly, pulling a much-folded piece of paper out from underneath his kimono and holding it out. Toph had insisted that he go before them unarmed and unarmored to "encourage trust." The fact that, as Zuko had pointed out, she had only insisted he remove his armor after discovering that it was less than comfortable to sit on was deemed to be "besides the point."

Sokka strode forward, wiping the last of the laughter-induced tears from his face. "So, what's this? An 'I'm sorry' card?"

"Just read it!" Zuko snarled, and received another bop on the head for his trouble.

"Bad Zuko!" Toph said scoldingly, her fists planted on her hips.

Sokka guffawed again and began to read aloud, his voice ringing with levity for only a line or two, gradually becoming intermittently incredulous and serious.

 _"People of the Fire-Nation, her colonies, and territories,  
_

 _It is with a heavy heart that I must now convey to you an unpleasant truth._

 _Fire-Lord Ozai, is insane._

 _He has taken leave of his senses and I, Prince Zuko, can no longer remain silent. His Majesty, in collusion with his chosen ministers and the Daijo-Kan, is at this very moment plotting murder and betrayal of the highest order. Planning deeds so honorless, so perfidious, that I can scarcely believe it myself._

 _Fire-Lord Ozai plans to kill every citizen of the Fire-Nation not residing on the home island or the islands of the Eastern Sea._

 _He plans to use the return of Sozin's comet to burn every man, woman, and child in the occupied Earth-Kingdom and our Colonies alive._

 _I wish that this was untrue. I wish with my whole heart that it were not so. But it is not, and so I must bring the truth before the light of the Holy Sun._

 _I declare Sengoku._

 _By the right of my blood and the strength of my honor I declare myself in rebellion to the throne. I declare that Ozai, son of Azulon and Ilah, is no fit Fire-Lord. I say that he has forsaken his vows, taken leave of his senses and has no right to rule, no authority to command, and no power over ANY of us. I swear, here and now, that I will not rest until another has ascended the throne and my people are safe._

 _In the past I have made mistakes. I have mistook blind duty for honor and many have suffered for it. I swear before you that I will never make that mistake again. I would ask those I have wronged for forgiveness, though I know myself to be unworthy of it._

 _The days ahead will not be easy ones. There will be blood, madness, and war such as has not been seen since the age of heroes. Again, with heavy heart, I must ask you, my people, for aid. I ask that you stand with me against madness, dishonor, and tyranny. I ask that you stand with me against those who will murder you for no crime at all. I ask that you STAND with ME and help me reclaim our HONOR as a people and a Nation.  
_

 _If I must stand alone, then so be it. I will go to my ancestors, conscience clear, knowing that I at least took a stand and behaved with honor._

 _That I at least tried._

 _I can only ask that you do the same. That you remember what it means to be Fire-Nation, to be samurai._

 _Honor before Reason._

 _And Death before Dishonor._

 _Akodo Zuko,_

 _Prince of Fire."_

"Daaaaammn," Sokka breathed.

"This is what I was _trying_ to explain earli-"

"It's a trick!" Katara snarled, her stance and the floating volley of ice unchanged.

"It's not," Toph said quietly. "I can tell when _this_ Akodo is lying."

"That letter went out to every city, village, garrison, and town in the Nation on the Day of Black Sun," Zuko said, his tone growing more confident with each word he spoke. "Every admiral, general, and governor got a copy directly by messenger hawk. I had over a million copies printed, and there's no way my father could suppress them all. They all _know_ what's coming at least."

"So why are you _here_ then?" Katara spat. "Shouldn't you be off somewhere making speeches, and rallying troops, and… and… protecting your _people_?" Her disdain was notable throughout but very heavy when she said "people."

"I am here," Zuko said, focusing on the Avatar, "because it won't be enough. If _everything_ goes my way, I _might_ be able to stop my father long enough to keep him from murdering the entire continent. But most of my people live in a state of awe and fear of the Fire-Lord, as I once did. They won't betray him, even if they know he thinks they're less than worthless. I need allies. _Foreign_ allies. This seemed as good a place to start as any."

Aang sighed and shook his head. "But how can we trust you?" he said, looking remarkably sad.

"I don't know what else I can do to prove myself to you at this point," Zuko said quietly, his yellow eye affixed on the Avatar's grey pair. "I've broken with my father, plunged my nation into civil war, offered to find you a firebending teacher… what more can I do?"

Aang stood silently for a long tense moment, his eyes closed, then he nodded. "Yes… a _firebending_ teacher," he said softly, his eyes found Zuko's again and suddenly he seemed less like the cheerful teenager that Zuko had chased across the world and more like the ancient being that he actually was, like Roku stood before him again, the image aided greatly by the Avatar's continuing growth spurt. "I need a firebending teacher. I will accept your proposal-"

There was a mighty crash as an ocean of ice dissolved into water and fell to the ground. "Aang! No!" Katara shouted looking suddenly nervous and horrified.

"-under one condition," Aang continued, ignoring her. "YOU will be my firebending teacher."

"W-what? You… you can't be serious?" Zuko said.

"He ISN'T!" Katara shouted furiously.

"I am," Aang said, standing up straight and looking Zuko in the eye, his tone and manner of speech eerily similar to Roku's specter. "I think it is fate, _destiny_ even, that has brought you here today. I think that you are _supposed_ to be my firebending teacher." There was a pause, and suddenly he grinned sheepishly, scratching the back of his neck, and returning to a normal sixteen-year-old. "I'll have to ask my friends of course."

"NO!" Katara shouted again, now turning a vibrant red.

"Well that's one vote for 'no,'" Toph said dryly. "I vote yes. Don't forget that you owe me a piggyback ride whenever I ask," she finished in a lower tone, bopping Zuko on the head again.

"Sokka?" Aang said hopefully.

"Hey, all I want is to defeat the Fire-Lord. If you think this is the way to do it, then I'm all for it," Sokka said shrugging.

"That's three to one!" Toph crowed, "Sorry sugar-queen, the ayes have it!"

"Toph, there is no need to provoke-" Zuko began muttering quietly.

"You shut up!" Katara shrieked, pointing at him. "Do I need to remind everyone what he put us through! He chased us across the planet! Burned down Kyoshi! Killed General How and c _onquered_ Ba Sing Se! He betrayed us and-"

"Oh, he betrayed _us,_ did he? And how _exactly_ did he do that, Katara?" Toph piped up.

"You… you know what he did!"

"All I know is that he didn't do anything that any of us wouldn't have done. He did something _stupid_ for family. And because he _did,_ we now have a shot, the best shot we've had, _no offense Sokka,_ to take the Fire-Lord down and WIN this thing!"

"He… he…"

"Did any of us give him a better choice? Did anyone here _say_ something that might have persuaded him otherwise?"

Katara looked as though she had been slapped.

"No!" Toph shouted, now really sounding angry. "Apparently, all _you_ did was SHOUT and-"

"Toph. Enough." Zuko said.

"But she-"

"She… no one here needs to justify any misgivings they have about me." Zuko took a breath and gently removed the small earthbender from his shoulders. "If I am not wanted here, I will leave, in peace. I bear none of you any ill will anymore and-"

"Damn you," Katara said her fists clenched at her sides.

"Katara?" Aang said tremulously.

"Damn you for making me the bad guy," Katara said, tears beginning to fall from her eyes. "Damn _all of you._ "

 _Damnit, why am I always making her cry?_ Zuko thought as guilt hit him like a punch to the gut.

There were a few moments of weepy silence, the Avatar flitting around Katara nervously, looking nothing so much as though he would like to give her a hug, but was afraid of breaking her. Eventually, she dried her eyes and visibly put herself back together. "Alright," she said quietly, "I'll go along with whatever you think is right, Aang."

"Thank you, Katara," Aang said beaming at her.

Katara's eyes moved from Aang's to Zuko's and when they met it was as if Zuko was back in that cave under Ba Sing Se again. All the heartbreak and pain and misery that had been etched on her face was in that look. All of his very worst nightmares condensed into a single moment.

It hurt, more than anything, and Zuko looked away first.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

The room Sokka had led him to was spartan, a small bed on one side, an open window on the far wall, a single nightstand. Zuko dropped his rucksack in the corner and set about claiming the room as his; setting up a portable rack for his armor and one for his daisho. Lacking any better place for them he simply piled his books and scrolls neatly in one corner, his copy of LEADERSHIP and Roku's crown on the nightstand. That accomplished he lit a series of candles and placed them in a line on the floor before the window and began to meditate.

The flames rose and fell with his breathing, red and vibrant, rising and falling, causing the silvery moonlight that shone through the window to ebb and flow in a circle around him.

Zuko wasn't sure how he felt about the moon anymore. He hadn't cared for it as a child of course; the moon was the symbol of one of his enemies. Now, of course, it just reminded him of _her_. Those few nights they were together when the moon was full were some of the best of his life. Katara had never been more passionate, never more wild, never more fiercely beautiful, than those nights when the moon was full. She had practically seemed to glow from within, pure light on legs, a furious passion shining behind her blue-grey eyes.

Eyes that he could now feel boring into the back of his head.

She had been there for one hundred and fourteen of Zuko's deep breaths, he had kept count.

He could only guess at what was going on behind those eyes that he dared not look at. He assumed she was doing something similar to what he had been doing not a day ago.

Trying to figure out _what_ to say.

A part of Zuko wanted to turn around. Turn around and throw himself at her feet, break himself into a thousand pieces, offer up his life, his flaming _soul_ , if that's what she wanted.

He wanted to _beg_ for her forgiveness.

But he wouldn't, _couldn't._ The very idea made his muscles lock in terror, brought the sickening taste of bile to his throat, and filled his ears with the horrible roar of flames screaming towards his eye.

" _You DARE to BEG in front of ME!"_

It seemed that it didn't matter that his father was an honorless dog, didn't matter that he loved Katara more than he could ever possibly communicate.

He could NOT beg, and even if he could have there would have been no point to it. Katara would never forgive him.

And more importantly, he didn't deserve her forgiveness.

He was a murderous traitorous monster who, even in his own mind, did not believe he truly deserved her. Really, he never had. She deserved someone better than him. Someone who would never make her cry, someone she could be proud of, someone who wasn't _broken_ like him.

So he remained still and silent.

"Why?" she said quietly, finally breaking her silence.

The urge to turn and the utter conviction of his unworthiness both rose in equal measure. Counterbalancing one another.

So Zuko simply kept breathing, flames pulsing in a slow steady tempo, moonlight growing and receding in opposition.

After a long silence Katara began to speak again, now in the clipped tones that to Zuko's ear indicated a practiced speech. He barely listened to the words, it wasn't anything he didn't expect. If he tried to hurt the Avatar, she would kill him. If she even _suspected_ he was _thinking_ about it, she would kill him. There were a lot of death threats and warnings and self-righteous bossiness. Zuko instead focused on the tone of her voice, the way it seemed to flow, rhythmic and strong, like waves on the beach singing a song.

 _Spirits, I missed her,_ he thought, a sad but hidden smile creeping on to his face as he continued breathing.

Still painfully, horribly, in love with her.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

To say that the next few days were _interesting_ might qualify as the understatement of the era.

Zuko had watched the Avatar's group before; from a distance as they slept, or up close and personal with fire at his fingertips, but he had never seen them just… be themselves.

It was wildly disconcerting.

Shinjo Sokka, the idiot, was strangely quiet and focused. The humiliation of his defeat at Otosan Uchi seemed to weigh heavily on him. He tried to seem jovial, but when he thought no one was looking he wore a pensive frown that simply screamed guilt.

Zuko knew that look, it was shockingly similar to the one _he_ wore just before he did something stupid.

The Avatar, by contrast, was remarkably bouncy. Buoyant and somehow carefree. Not surprising given his element, but Zuko had always assumed that a monk should have more gravitas, more solemnity, like the shugenja of fire. The boy was, however, one-hundred-and-sixteen going on sixteen… going on _six._

Zuko stayed out of his way. They would start training soon and he was sure he would get enough of the boy's incessant cheerfulness then.

Toph was loud, constantly vulgar and abrasive, yet seemed subtly determined to lift everyone's spirits, especially Sokka's. Occasionally when she succeeded and got the idiot to laugh, her face would color ever so slightly.

She was also the only one who went out of her way to talk to Zuko.

There were also three new additions to the group whom Zuko had never seen before. A child, who could have been no older than nine, wearing a helmet easily four times too large for his head and who insisted his name was "the Duke," (the definite article being an intrinsic part of his name.) There was also an earthbender with an awful mustache named Uwagari Haru and another younger man who was confined to a chair with wheels named Fundai Teo. None of the three had ever seen Zuko before, but after a semi-formal introduction, the two older of the three gave him a wide berth. Apparently, it was taken as a universal truth that firebenders could not be trusted.

On the other hand, Zuko caught "the Duke" staring at him more times than not, jerking his head away or running and hiding behind Sokka or Katara when he was caught at it.

Zuko just assumed he was being respectfully paranoid in his own unsubtle way.

And then there was Katara.

Obviously, _she_ was angry. Although the word _angry_ didn't really do her current mood justice. That was expected and entirely unsurprising. What _was_ surprising was everything else about her. The Katara he knew was assertive, argumentative, and very _very_ proud. He still saw flashes of that, but deeply restrained underneath a layer of… well, he could only think of it as "motherliness."

No matter that his own mother had been a master swordswoman and a hairs-breath away from being a Kensai.

Katara cooked the meals (which Zuko had expected given her amazing talent there) but she also darned the socks, did the laundry, cleaned up after everyone (except for him of course,) and nobody even _offered_ to help.

Zuko couldn't help but eagerly await the ensuing explosion that he was certain was coming.

But it didn't.

 _Who IS this person?_ Zuko thought wonderingly. It seemed like there were _two_ Kataras. One was the woman so proud that she wouldn't even allow him to walk her to safety in Ba Sing Se or the Badlands. The other one patched holes in her brother's pants. One was the girl who had impaled him on a spear of ice a bare few days after her gempukku. The other one made sure that "the Duke" ate his vegetables.

 _Where is MY Katara?_ Zuko wondered.

Zuko did see her occasionally, but only that, _occasionally._ He was trying, desperately, not to look at her at all, not to even _think_ about her. He had a war to fight, and a monk to train, and every time he saw her it was as if his whole world came crashing down around his ears.

But in spite of his efforts he saw _his_ Katara every once in a great while, the fury mounting up behind her eyes, and he would stop whatever he was doing to wait and see if _his_ Katara would make an appearance, or if it would be the other one.

It was neither. Or perhaps both.

 _Maybe I just didn't know her as well as I thought I did?_ he thought, sitting alone by his separate campfire.

The thought was depressing.

He sat alone in contemplation of his red flames, trying not to listen to the happy sounding laughter at the other fire, not thirty paces away.

He'd given them some time to recover. Time to lick their wounds and lift their spirits, but it had to end.

He needed to get to work.

After his meager meal of rice, he extinguished his flames and stalked over to the other campfire.

The group, formerly laughing at something Sokka or Toph had said, fell silent at his approach.

"Tomorrow. Dawn," Zuko growled at the Avatar and pointed to a smaller spar of stone, well out of the way of the rest of the temple. "There." He turned around to leave, quickly, before Katara could decide to cut off one of his ears.

"Wait, what? What happens tomorrow?" Aang said somehow seeming puzzled.

Zuko looked back over his shoulder. "Tomorrow you learn firebending." And then he stalked off into the night.

* * *

 **A/N:** **Gooood morning not-necessarily-sport fans, and welcome back to your designated Zuko time! I hope you've enjoyed my rendition of "The Western Air Temple," but if you haven't you are of course free to comment/review at me in an angry/irritated/simply-trying-to-help-me-get-better fashion. OR you could just say you liked it. That works too, but only if you're telling the truth, neither Toph, nor I, have any time for any badgershit.**

 **We both have enough of our own badgershit to deal with!**

 **And now to** **BITS** **and their corresponding** **METAS.**

 **Maybe mention the comet SOONER!:** **I hate ret-cons. Honestly, I do. Mostly because I am very very GOOD at suspending my disbelief when I'm in the midst of a good story. But the angry/cynical/rational side of me is still sitting in the back row taking notes and will remind me, later, after I have finished the story, of those parts that REALLY didn't make any sense. And I will be annoyed. So, Canon!Zuko, buddy, maybe you should LEAD with the part about the genocide? Even if that's not the MAIN reason you're there (which it bloody well should have been!) you could maybe** _ **mention**_ **it? Obvious ret-con. I feel like somebody in the Atla writer pool, somewhere around "boiling rock" maybe said "hey. Exactly WHY does Aang need to defeat the Fire-Lord before the comet?" "because Roku said," another replied. "Yeah, ok, but… why? What's going to happen if they don't?" And then there was much scrambling and re-reading of scripts until they realized that there really WASN'T anything planned.**

 **Of course, I have chosen to uphold the initial, Zuko is a stutter dork who does not react/adapt as well when trying to persuade. So he bounces between nervousness and snappishness.**

 **And then Toph kicks his ass.**

 **Toph. Still my favorite:** **And her name is TOPH BEIFONG (/queue john Cena trumpet.) And so here comes everyone's best girl in to save the godsdamn day. Is she going to get surprised by Zuko firebending at her? Fuck no. Is she going to crawl away in ignoble deFEET (ha! getit!) Again, FUCK no. She is really pissed off, and so, in what** _ **I**_ **consider to be typical Toph-fashion she proceeds to kick some ass.**

 **So the question is, WHY is she so pissed off?**

 **Because she, like probably most of us here, is a Zutara shipper, and more than a little annoyed that Zuko couldn't pull his head out of his ass in time to maybe NOT betray the love of his life. Yes, even I'm annoyed by him, and I'm the one who made him do it! Which leads us to…**

 **Toph, annoyed and annoying:** **Why then does she HELP Zuko, who so disastrous wrecked the sweet romance she was vicariously living through Katara? I like to think that, she and Katara had talked about WHEN Katara was going to drop the L-bomb. Toph was all in favor of just doing it IMMEDIATELY, but Katara wanted it to be, well, perfect.** _ **Magical**_ **even. Toph sees her lack of confession to be DIRECTLY responsible for Zuko's behavior, and while she has not entirely forgiven him, he has made some compelling arguments, and, again there's that pesky future-genocide of her whole people coming up. She being eminently practical, is completely right that they need Zuko, just as much as he needs them.**

 **The letter of HONOR!:** **I hope everyone enjoyed Zuko letter to the people. A thing like that will inevitably become a serious historical artifact in the Fire-Nation and as a historian, I greatly enjoyed thinking about what exactly Zuko would want to say for posterity.  
**

 **Begging:** **Why is Zuko** _ **now**_ **having such a physical reaction to the idea of begging for forgiveness? You might ask. That's because he really, really, wants to. But, well, his dad kinda ruined him on the kind of trust it takes to leave yourself vulnerable like that at the moment. He has also (as an internal method of justifying it to himself) convinced himself that NOT trying to be with Katara is the right and moral thing to do. Drama, angst, suspense and just WAY too many emotions.  
**

 **The State of the Gaang:** **Ladies and Gents this is it, the beginning of the completion of the Gaang. Zuko who has been an outsider for so long is now… well at least inside** _ **adjacent**_ **. So he begins to see the** _ **actual**_ **people that he had been fighting for some time, who are in fact quite a bit different than he (or his narrator) had thought.**

 **And then there's Katara.**

 **We all have different faces. Different ways of speech and way of acting depending on who we are around. Different social conventions for different situations and groups of people. You behave differently at your familial home, then you do at the home of an acquaintance, or in a train station or airport. Zuko is** _ **seeing**_ **this now. The Katara he knew is not the one that Aang knows. They are simply different facets of the same person, and over time he is going to figure that out, as the two halves of Katara's life, that she has tried very hard to keep separate, at going to be colliding rather forcefully.**

 **I regret nothing.**

 **.**

 **.**

 **NEXT WEEK on a very special "Avatar: The Last Dragon"...**

 **Zuko shouts, plays Go, and does very little actual firebending.**

 **TUNE IN. Same Zuko time, Same Zuko channel!**

 **Original post date: 13 January 2019**


	8. The Collision of Air and Fire

**A/N: The Following is Rated P; for philosophical.**

 **It contains dialog, where appropriate, from S3E13 "The Firebending Masters."**

 **Reader discretion is advised.**

* * *

Chapter 8 "The Collision of Air and Fire"

* * *

 **Spring, year 12 in the reign of Fire-Lord Ozai**

As the Sun rose over the Western Air Temple its golden rays of light wound their way through the perpetual mists that floated in the adjacent canyon, once again creating a nearly transcendent vista.

Those rays also quickly found and illuminated two _very_ different samurai.

One samurai had long hair bound tightly in a topknot and a beard, the other had a bald head and hairless cheeks. One samurai had skin marked by blue arrow tattoos, stretching from head to toe and down each arm, marred only by a single darkened patch where they had been struck by a bolt of lightning. The other's body was _covered_ in scars; from blades, arrows, fire, earth, ice, animals, and once a chop stick.

One samurai had one single blazing yellow eye, the other had a matched pair in calm storm cloud grey.

One samurai had been born to a life of peace, the other to a life of war.

It would have been difficult to find two more different people if one even had a reason to try.

And so Akodo Zuko and Togashi Aang, two of the most different of samurai, stared at one another as the Sun rose, illuminating them and the stonework around them.

"So… firebending, huh? …How _about_ that firebending?" Aang said after a long moment, attempting to make a stab at humor.

Zuko remained silent. Glaring.

"…Maybe you're not ready? That's ok!" Aang said quickly. "We can just start up tomorr-"

"What does fire do?" Zuko said abruptly.

"…What?" Aang looked suddenly lost.

"This is very basic stuff, Avatar. What does fire _do_?"

"Errr… it… burns?"

"Yes. Exactly. Fire burns," Zuko said tonelessly. "Unlike any element you have yet worked with fire has an _agency_ of its own. You may call it forth, bend it in to existence, but if you do not control it… it will simply follow its nature and burn _everything_."

"Yeah. I've seen that," Aang said sounding slightly worried.

"Fear is a wise beginning," Zuko said with an approving nod. "It engenders both respect for the art of control and the _anger_ necessary for power."

"Anger? But… I'm not angry. I'm just… worried."

"Anger is the body's natural answer to fear, the tool by which we defend ourselves from our enemies," Zuko said. "You had better find it, boy. Find that fire inside you. You will need it. Now, we will begin with-"

"No I won't," Aang said defiantly.

"…If you ever hope to master firebending and defeat my _father_ you will," Zuko growled.

"But… _you're_ not angry," Aang said smiling hopefully.

"I am _always_ angry," Zuko retorted, and Aang's face fell.

"But… you're not attacking me. You're just standing there… _scowling_." Aang stuck his fingers in the corners of his mouth pulling the sides down in what he must have thought was an amusing facial expression.

"Control," Zuko intoned, ignoring the face Aang was pulling. "Everything is about control. There is nothing in this world that is of use to anyone unless it is kept under control."

"That's… that's just so much different than how the monks taught me to live," Aang said sadly, dropping his hands to his sides and his eyes to the ground. "I just don't think that-"

"Oh yes," Zuko said, interrupting, "the _monks_. And, tell me, exactly how did _that_ work out for them?"

Aang's eyes tightened as they snapped back to Zuko's, his fists clenching.

"Yes," Zuko growled quietly, " _there_ it is. Feel that? _That's_ your fire, your strength. Now. Show me what you've got."

Aang took a step back, exhaling deeply. Then he wound up and gestured forcefully with one fist.

…producing a puff of smoke and a small noise not dissimilar to flatulence.

Aang giggled at the sound and Zuko rolled his eye.

"Sorry. I'll try again."

He did so, and this time conjured absolutely nothing.

He grinned sheepishly as Zuko continued to glare at him.

"I guess I just don't like holding on to anger," Aang said, shrugging. "The… the monks always said it was like a poison that could kill even the strongest-"

"Try again," Zuko snapped. "Breathe in, think about something that angers you and then-" without even looking Zuko punched to his left, sending a massive red ball of flame crashing into one of the temple's walls, cracking the stone and leaving an enormous scorch mark- "do _that_."

"Well… I'm not really feeling _angry_ right now," Aang said, once again smiling hopefully. "Maybe we should try tomorrow? I'm sure I can come up with something that-"

"For the spirits' sake," Zuko shouted, throwing his hands in the air. "you must feel _something._ Everyone you knew, your entire _culture_ , was wiped out by my great-grandfather. How does that not… infuriate you?"

"It did," Aang said with a shrug, "but my teachers, and Guru Pathik, said that I need to let go of anger so that I could obtain peace, unlock my chakras, and master the Avatar state. So… I did. I learned to let go..." his eyes shifted off of Zuko and to the ground "…of everything."

"…Then your people meant _nothing_ to you," Zuko said with another growl.

"That… that's not true!"

"It IS true!" Zuko shouted. "Either you care for something, or you don't! There is no middle ground."

"There is!" Aang said now shouting back. "There is the middle-way. The way of love and forgiveness. The way of accepting loss and not letting it stain our soul. To be truly free you have to-"

"Free? FREE?!" Zuko roared, "What in the Sun's name makes you think that _you_ , of all people, get to be free? No one, not a ONE of us, is ever free!"

"That doesn't mean we can't try!"

"Oh YES, let us all _shirk_ our duty. Let us all simply skip through the firelillies singing songs. Let us all RUN AWAY."

"That's not what happened!"

"Oh? Then tell me, _Avatar_ , where have you BEEN? Where were you when your people _needed_ you?"

"I… I…" Aang's eyes darted back in forth.

"Coward," Zuko spat.

Aang screamed in fury and bent fire in an impressive gout at Zuko. Zuko simultaneously dodged and slapped the flame aside with one of his own. Aang stood there panting, his eyes wide in horror at what he had done.

"GOOD!" Zuko said, a grin coming to his lips. "There it is! Again. And remember to breathe."

Aang took a deep breath but instead of bending more fire he just sighed. "I'm sorry. I can't live like that. I _refuse_ to live like that, to be consumed."

"The entire point is to _control_ it, not be consumed," Zuko growled. "Most people already _have_ things they are angry about. You, it seems, must start from the bottom. And you of _all_ people have things that you _should_ be angry about."

"I refuse to linger on the things I cannot change. It does nothing but poison the mind and heart."

"Those who will not acknowledge a mistake are condemned to repeat it," Zuko quoted, shaking his head. "Did you make a mistake?"

Aang looked at the ground sullenly.

"Did YOU _make_ a-"

"Yes! Yes I made a mistake! Ok? I was thirteen and I never wanted any of it! I never wanted any of this… responsibility."

"Nobody seeks out duty," Zuko said quietly, "it instead finds you. This is the way of things. To fulfill the duties that this life gives us brings us honor. Life is that hard truth, boy. The sooner you accept that, the sooner you will be able to move forward."

"Ugh, you're worse than Jeong-Jeong," Aang muttered.

"Jeong-Jeong?" Zuko said rocking back in surprise. "Jeong-Jeong the deserter? You _met_ Jeong-Jeong-sensei?"

"Err… yeah. Before we got to the North Pole. He was… intense. Kinda like you."

"Ash and bone. What did he teach you? Even after his desertion he was widely acclaimed as one of the greatest firebenders of his generation. Uncle always said…" Zuko trailed off, frowning. Thoughts of his missing uncle were not the most pleasant.

"All he taught me was how to _breathe,"_ Aang said. "It was boring. And he said a lot of the same stuff that _you_ said. Fire is alive, it destroys, blah blah. The only thing I really learned is that I _really_ don't want to firebend. All it does is hurt people."

"Does a cookfire hurt people?" Zuko asked.

"…No."

"That is because it is _under control_. All of life is _about_ control. Control the flame to cook your food. Control the body to learn bending. Control the people so that they do not damage one another."

"What?" Aang said mildly stunned. "You can't control _people,_ that's not right. People should be free."

"Free to murder? Free to rape and steal and destroy? Better that they are controlled than to simply allow them to do as they wish. That is where bandits, pirates and other savages come from."

"People _aren't_ savages."

"Some are. At the core, each of us is only an animal, born to live, kill, consume, and procreate. It is only through control of those base urges that we may channel those desires into productive honorable actions."

"People are more than just animals!" Aang cried, once again shouting. "We love, we hope, we _dream._ "

"And in the end, all of that is WASTED unless it is CONTROLLED," Zuko shouted back.

"I will agree that people are fallible, people make _mistakes_ ," Aang said, his tone quieter but no less determined. "That is why forgiveness is important, and why anger is _not_ the answer. No matter how rigid your control, you eventually will make a mistake and then in that moment, your mistake will be magnified a hundred-fold. Because you, in your ignorance, held on to anger."

"MISTAKE?!" Zuko roared, incited to the edge of fury. "You speak to me of mistakes!? You _hypocritical_ little-"

"That's enough!" Katara snapped from behind him.

Zuko had apparently been so engrossed in the argument he had allowed himself to be snuck up upon. He opened his mouth to retort, thought better of it, and simply ground his teeth together as he stared at the ground.

"Come on Aang, it's time for your waterbending practice," Katara said icily. Zuko could now feel her eyes trying to peel the scalp from the back of his skull.

"Ok!" Aang said, his face lighting up instantly. "Until tomorrow, Hotman-sensei!" he said brightly, all trace of his previous anger and confusion gone as he scampered off.

" _Hotman-sensei?"_ _Ancestors give me strength._

With a deep sigh Zuko turned around to leave the platform himself…

...and found the Duke staring at him from beneath his oversized helmet.

They stared at one another for a long beat.

"What… do you want, small child?" Zuko said, in genuine confusion.

The Duke said nothing, only stared at him for a beat longer, then turned and ran off.

 _Mad. Utterly mad, the whole flaming LOT of them!_

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"So, I take it that Twinkle-Toes isn't doing so _hot,_ " Toph said, snorting with mirth later that evening. "Hot! Get it?"

"Yes, I get it," Zuko said unsmilingly as he stared into his cookfire.

"Lighten up there, Sparky. It took Aang _ages_ to figure out earthbending."

"…Sparky?"

"Yeah, I'm trying out nicknames for you. Sokka is Snoozles and Meathead. Katara is Sweetness and Sugar-Queen. Aang is Twinkle-Toes and the Fancy-Dancer. _You_ are Sparky… maybe."

"I await my new naming with breathless anticipation," Zuko said sarcastically. "...Why are you over here anyway? You're going to get a _talking_ _to_ from your 'Sugar-Queen.'"

"She can bite me. Besides, you looked lonely over here."

"…Looked?" Zuko was _not_ falling for that one again.

"Ok, fine, but you keep glancing over at our camp like you want to join us."

"No I flaming well do _not!_...besides how would _you_ know anyway?"

"Probably because every time you glance over and see _her_ , your heart skips a beat."

Zuko growled wordlessly at his fire.

"Yes, you're right, it _is_ a curse being the _greatest_ earthbender in the world," Toph said happily, leaning back from where she sat with her arms behind her head. "Taught by the original bending badger-moles, three-time Earth Rumble Champ, all around ass-kicker extraordinaire."

"Insufferable child," Zuko said without any real heat.

"I am _almost_ sixteen _,_ fuck you very much."

"Really?" Zuko said, surprised. "Why don't you have your wakizashi then?" Zuko had assumed he had simply guessed her age wrong up until this point.

"Because I'm not a gravel-chewing samurai," Toph said, idly picking at her feet.

"The ashpits you're not. You expect me to believe that the _greatest_ earthbender in the world hasn't gone through gempukku?" Zuko assumed that she was making some sort of joke, a surprisingly poor one for her.

"My family aren't samurai," Toph said suddenly sounding more bitter and somber than Zuko had ever heard her be before. "We're _merchants_. It isn't _done_ to go off and fight in battles and stuff."

"But… you're a _bender_ ," Zuko said, now blinking in confusion.

Toph shrugged. "No, I'm a 'helpless little blind girl.' Whatever. It isn't important. I stopped caring what other people think of me, I'm not looking for anyone's approval. I know who I am."

Zuko watched the girl, normally so tough, curl in on herself a little bit and was rather forcefully reminded of Mai.

 _No._

"UNACCEPTABLE!" he roared, leaping to his feet.

Toph squeaked in surprise and nearly fell over. The rest of the Avatar's group ceased their conversation and turned to watch him.

"It is _unacceptable_!" Zuko continued, heedless of their stares and fuming with the injustice of it. "I will not have someone, who not only can beat me in single combat, but is entirely _worthy_ , be denied gempukku! You are flaming well a samurai if I _say_ you are a samurai! Fucking barbarian Earth-Kingdom gempukku be damned! If the piece of bending I saw in Gaoling wasn't good enough then _nothing_ will be! The minute, the absolute flaming _minute,_ I find you a wakizashi you are going to carry it. Am I clear, Beifong Toph."

Toph cocked her head to the side in her version of a piercing stare.

"You're actually serious, aren't you?" she said her grin returning.

"You're damned right I'm serious!" Zuko roared. "You're a bender, the world's flaming _greatest_ and, by the Sun, if anyone tries to tell me you're not, I'll rip their ash-spawned arms off and shove them right up their-" he cut off at Toph surprisingly loud giggles.

"Holy shit, you two were just _made_ for each other… just, reign it in for a minute?" Toph nodded her head towards the other campfire and Zuko saw Katara stomping over to them like an angry blue stormfront.

 _Oh shit._

"Just what in the FROST do you think you're doing?" Katara snarled at him.

"Back off, Sweetness! He was being nice!" Toph said bending herself on to her feet.

"Nice?" Katara snorted in bitter mirth. "Don't make me laugh. He couldn't be 'nice' if his _honor_ depended on it!"

 _Ok. THAT was a little uncalled for._

"Just because he's being nice to me is no reason for you to come over here and be _jealous_!" Toph crooned.

"WHAT?!" Katara shrieked.

 _Oh ash, here we go._

"Jealous!? JEALOUS!?"

"Yeah, _jealous._ You had your chance with 'em," Toph crowed, grabbing ahold of Zuko's arm. "Don't be bitchy just 'cause you screwed it up!"

"I screwed it up?! _I_ screwed it up?!"

"Yeah! Just because you had to have everything so fucking perfect. So-"

"Toph. Enough," Zuko said, cutting her off.

"I was just-"

"A _samurai_ does not behave this way."

Toph furrowed her brow, her blind eyes staring at a point to Katara's right.

"Apologize."

"What for? I didn't do anything!" Toph whined.

"You know perfectly well what you did," Zuko said firmly. "If you don't want to be treated like a child then you need to act like an adult. You are _better_ than this. The world's greatest earthbending samurai _must_ be better than this."

Toph snorted heavily, kicked a loose pebble on the ground, and mumbled something under her breath.

"Perhaps I have been deafened by _someone_ perpetually shouting about how great they are?" Zuko said dryly. "I could not seem to make that out."

"I'm _SORRY!"_ Toph shouted bitterly.

"Good," Zuko said, nodding. "Now, offer to commit seppuku in recompense."

"WHAT?!" both of the women shouted in unison.

"That was a joke," Zuko said flatly.

Toph punched him in the stomach and stalked off to the other campfire with Katara, both of them in a huff.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"You are late," Zuko growled the next morning. The Sun had been up for over twenty minutes and he was less than pleased.

"Sorry," Aang said genially, if not particularly apologetically, "I had to convince Katara to let me come up here, without her." He shook his head. "Honestly, sometimes I think she thinks that I'm made of spun glass."

"Understandable," Zuko said with a nod. "She believes that you are the last chance the world has for peace. And that _I_ am an evil murderous traitor." He shrugged. "And she is not entirely wrong."

"Oh don't be so hard on yourself. I think you're actually a pretty good guy!" Aang said brightly.

Zuko, who had been in the process of removing the top of his kimono, in blindly hopeful anticipation of Aang _possibly_ bending fire today, stopped in utter shock.

"…What?"

"What you said to Toph yesterday? Sure it was a bit more… violent than was probably necessary but still… really nice!" Aang said a large and earnest smile on his face.

"No. It wasn't," Zuko said with a shake of his head. "It was the _truth._ She is a bender, that makes her a samurai. Period."

"Yes, but it showed that you _cared,_ " Aang said, still beaming, "and _that_ , if nothing else, tells me that I was right to let you join us."

"Yes, yes, fine. I'm a flaming _wonderful_ person," Zuko said sarcastically, rolling his single eye. "Now, _firebending_."

"I was just wondering how you felt about it?" Aang continued. "About how Toph has been fighting her whole life against her parents' _control?_ Maybe you might have found it similar to-"

"Toph sought her own control," Zuko said cutting the boy off with a sharp gesture. "Her parents sought to control her. It was that conflict that shaped her and made her the master bender that she is today. Her own desire for control."

"But she left!" Aang said, surprised at having his argument turned back around on him. "She ran away! You don't find that… dishonorable?"

"Her parents behaved without honor first," Zuko growled, still rather aggravated by the whole situation. "They denied her the opportunity to learn, better herself, achieve her destiny, and claim her own honor. There is a difference between running away so that you don't have to face your problems and withdrawing to _solve_ a problem." He rolled his neck in a circle and took a stance. "Today we are going to _try_ and start with-"

"I just don't see why _she_ gets to do whatever she wants…" Aang grumbled, puffing out his cheeks like a sulking child.

"Oh, I don't know boy, maybe because SHE DIDN'T HAVE THE FATE OF THE ENTIRE WORLD RIDING ON HER SHOULDERS!" Zuko roared.

"I DIDN'T ask for it!" Aang shouted, firing up immediately.

"Nobody ASKS for any of it! The world IS as it IS. Now _firebend,_ spirits damn you!"

Aang punched the air. There was another feeble puff of smoke.

Zuko slapped the heel of his hand to his forehead as Aang grinned sheepishly.

"Listen to me, boy. FORGET what you think you know about everything for a minute," Zuko said, trying and for the most part failing to reign in his temper. "YOU have a RIGHT to be angry, alright?"

Aang looked at him quizzically.

"You have a right to it," Zuko continued. "The world has not made your life easy, it never does, and it is alright to be _angry_ about that."

"You have to let it _go,_ " Aang said quietly. "You can't hold on to anger or it will… just…"

"Go on," Zuko said with a sneer, "I know _that_ platitude."

"It will burn you," Aang finished lamely.

"My point is that you _should_ let it go… right into your enemies face! Use the flame! Fight with your heart! Defeat your enemies and see them driven before you!"

"But…"

"But _nothing."_

"…There is always a better way," Aang said, taking a deep breath, visibly recentering himself. "There is always a nonviolent way."

"A _non_ violent…" Zuko's eye widened in shock, "…how _exactly_ did you see yourself defeating the Fire-Lord?"

"Well…"

"Did you imagine that you were going to walk up to him, give him a _hug,_ and that that would be the end of it? Are you OUT of your MIND?"

"I think I hoped that I could just talk him out of it?" Aang said, scratching at the back of his neck. "You know, just defeat him in combat and then…"

"…Then?"

"Well… things always work out. If you just talk about what's bothering you, you can work your way through anything."

"So, you thought you were just going to have a nice little _chat_ with my genocidal _lunatic_ of a father and then everything would be rainbows and firelilies?"

"Uhhh…"

"Did you have a _chat_ with the Northern Fleet?" Zuko said, beginning to stalk back and forth as he ranted. "Did you sit down with _Zhao_ and have a little talk? NO! You flaming well killed them! You met force with force, and you drove your enemies away!"

"That... that doesn't..." Aang looked rather nervous now, his eyes downcast and shifting his weight from foot to foot restlessly.

"That was your only real victory!" Zuko shouted, now more incredulous than anything else. "Every other timeyou simply _fled_! How can you not see that you need to be-"

"That doesn't count!" Aang said, the words bursting forth.

"...What?" Zuko stopped dead, mouth slightly ajar as the Avatar looked more panicked than anytime he had when Zuko had fought him.

"That wasn't _me!"_

"Wasn't... _you_? Of course it was you. Was it someone else who destroyed the Northern Fleet?"

"It was the Ocean Spirit! I'd never-"

"An ocean spirit that you _summoned,"_ Zuko said, still with incredulity. "Even leaving that aside, what about before that? Before that bastard committed his sacrilege? Was it the _ocean spirit_ that sunk all those ships?"

"I didn't hurt anybody!"

"You capsized their ships... at the North Pole. We don't all have magic iceberg powers!"

"I didn't-"

"And what about those fools in the war balloons you cut down during the invasion? Normal people can't FLY, boy. They fell hundreds of feet onto paving stones! Did you think that they would _bounce?_ "

"No! They... they could have-"

"You've killed hundreds of people," Zuko said, shaking his head.

Aang's eyes darted back and forth for a moment, then with a shout and a bend he snatched up his glider and flew away.

 _Ash and bone... I am a terrible teacher,_ Zuko thought, as he watched his "pupil" flee.

He was started from his contemplation of his deficiency as an educator by a loud and condescending whistle.

"Well _…_ I guess _that_ didn't work?" Sokka said, his mouth full of the apple he was now loudly munching on.

Zuko just glared at him.

"Katara sent me up here to make sure you two jerks didn't kill each other with your jerkbending." He snorted in amusement. "Heh. _Jerk_ bending. Still got it."

Zuko continued to glower.

"Hey, I'm not saying I don't agree with you. The kid was going to have to come around to the truth eventually, and Moon knows that nobody here wanted to have that conversation with him."

"Oh good, so _I_ get to be the bad guy again," Zuko growled.

"Well, yeah. I mean, you're _good_ at it. If the net catches fish, you don't need to patch it!" Sokka said jovially, taking another loud bite out of his apple.

Zuko resumed glaring at him.

"But, for my money, you should probably try taking it easy on attacking the kid's beliefs like you did," Sokka said gesturing with the nearly destroyed fruit.

"His _beliefs_ are what's keeping him from firebending," Zuko snapped.

"Are they? He seemed to do alright with Jeong-Jeong. Until he burnt Katara anyway."

"He did WHAT?!" Zuko roared, immediately incensed, a puff of flame at his mouth.

"Easy there, Mr. Angry. He made a mistake, was playing around like kids do, and burned her hands a bit. Good thing she knew how to heal herself or he'd probably _still_ be crying about it. Also, I'd have probably killed him in a fit of brotherly-love. Anyway, my _point_ is that you need to take it easy on his beliefs. He's the only airbender left in the world, and the culture and beliefs of his people are all he has left of them."

"None of that will do him any-"

"Think of it this way," Sokka said, overtop of Zuko, "if _somebody,_ I'm not saying who, was, say, _banished_ from their homeland, maybe _they_ would cling to the _idea_ of home, and forget all the complicated stuff? They might get a bit touchy about anyone attacking that idea. See?"

Zuko's single eye widened in surprise. "...Maybe _you_ should be the one who talks to him about this?"

"Nah," Sokka said throwing the now eradicated apple over his shoulder. "Nobody takes me seriously. I'm the meat and sarcasm guy, also, sometimes, the schedule and planning guy. Nobody is going to take 'Sokka the Guru and Philosopher guy' seriously. Frost, I've still got to put on a fake beard every time I want anyone to think I'm older then fifteen." He stroked his chin. "That _is_ a mighty fine beard you've got there."

"The more of my face I can cover up the better," Zuko said idly, more to himself than Sokka. "And here I thought you were an idiot, this whole time."

"Hey!"

"And does Guru Shinjo have any other suggestions as to how I might better teach this... difficult pupil?" Zuko said making a half-serious bow.

"Hold on," Sokka said reaching into the pouch at his back. His hands emerged with a large fake beard which he quickly slapped on to his face. "Now... tell me your problems, my son," he said in a ridiculous croaking old man voice.

"...Idiot."

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"Atari," Zuko said flatly. He had learned that it was best not to taunt Toph when he was victorious.

Not if he wanted to remain above ground anyway.

"Ugh, this game is _stupid,_ " Toph growled, pounding one fist into the ground, making the small game pieces jump.

Zuko had, for several days now, been attempting to teach the girl to play Go. Pai Sho had been out of the question of course, not only was Zuko terrible at the game (and without a set to hand) but the painted pieces would be indistinguishable from one another for the blind girl. However, by having Toph crack the stones of the Air Temple into a nineteen-by-nineteen grid, and by using metal and stone pieces to differentiate the different colors, they had managed to play a game or two a day.

Usually until Toph got frustrated or bored and wandered off.

"Unfortunate," Zuko said. I had thought that the world's _greatest_ earthbender would _excel_ at a game invented in the Earth-Kingdom."

"I'm _blind_ , you shit-brick!"

"Oh? So, you cannot see the board? A board you made, and with pieces that you yourself bent into existence? How truly disappointing," Zuko said dryly. He had, however, found that taunting _was_ useful when goading the girl into continued participation.

"...Again," Toph snapped.

Zuko grinned over top of a small seated bow and began collecting his stone pieces. Toph, by contrast, made a grunt and with a two-fingered beckoning motion bent her metal pieces off the board and into her hand. Zuko had, in part, persuaded her to learn the game not only to help with the passage of time but also for the opportunity to study her unique metalbending ability.

A fact that Toph had noticed immediately, despite her blindness.

"Stop ogling my bending, you nerd," she said with a cocky smirk, her sightless eyes glinting mischievously.

"Again, I am not 'ogling' your bending, I am _studying_ it. Perhaps, if you would consent to answering my questions it would be-"

"Nah. I already told you, you wanna _ask_ questions, you gotta _answer_ questions. And seeing as how you _don't_ , you're just shit out of luck, aren't you?" She then placed one of her stones at the very center of the board, taking the first play and laying claim at tengen, the center of the board.

"I cannot imagine that any question _you_ ask will be as impersonal as mine would be," Zuko said as he placed one of his stones at the hoshi point nearest to Toph's left hand.

"Oh, so bendingisn't _personal_ now?" she said with a scoff. "Could have fooled me, what with you and Aang bickering like children over who gets to play in the muddy side of the pit." Then she slammed one of her metal pieces into the board next to his. As Zuko had assumed, his foray into the area on "her" side of the board had prompted her to begin to play far more aggressively. Not always the best of strategies in Go.

Especially when one was still learning.

"I assume that 'the muddy side of the pit' is barbarian earther slang for something desirable?" Zuko said idly, forming eyes, unbreakable formations, with his stones, walling off Toph's incursions.

"Fucking A right it is." She cocked her head to the side contemplatively, whether of the board or of Zuko he could not tell. "Tell you what," she said after a minute and a few more plays, "I'll give up some of the advantage and ask my question _first_. Then you can decide if you want to answer or not."

 _Not a bad deal,_ Zuko thought, _provided she keeps her end of the bargain of course._

"Very well. I agree. Question for question. Also..." he placed another stone on the board, his grin reforming, "Atari."

He had now trapped the bulk of Toph's played stones in one corner and they had only one opening from which to play from, effectively capturing them.

"You really are a pain in the ass aren't you, grumpy?" Toph said irritably.

Zuko tensed at that. It was far _far_ to close to what Katara had used to call him, and he glowered pointlessly at the blind girl for a moment before remembering to vocalize.

"You will _not_ call me that," he growled, most of the sudden burst of anger gone at having forgotten Toph's blindness.

Toph blinked at his sudden change of tone, cocking her head the other way in scrutiny. "Was that… something _she_ called you?" she said quietly.

"Is _that_ your question?" Zuko snapped.

"Close… but no. But _that_ was certainly an answer," Toph said with a grin, entirely unimpressed with Zuko's volume or savage tone.

Zuko exhaled bitterly, and massaged the bridge of his nose in exasperation at himself.

"So," Toph said reverting to her normal somewhat brisk tone, "my _actual_ question is this. How do you know when you are in love?"

Zuko rocked back in surprise. Of all the embarrassing things he had assumed that the girl might ask _that_ had not been one of them. His eye flew around the area, checking for the location of the woman they were indirectly talking about.

"Pfft, don't worry about it, Sparky. She's over by the fountain, washing Sokka's socks which means she'll be there for a while. She can't hear us by a longshot."

Zuko gave a snort of consternation, a puff of flame coming from his nose, and tried to decide if the question was worth answering.

 _Ash with it. It's not a thing I should be embarrassed of, is it?_

"Well… uh… in my experience," Zuko began, stuttering a bit as he tried to get his mental feet under him at the sudden change in conversation. "When you are in love… well… she…" he sighed, "she is the first thing I think of in the morning and very likely the last thing I think about before I fall asleep."

"Still?"

"Still. I just… I always expected to see her, even when there was no reason for her to be there. Even in the Fire-Nation. Someone would knock at my door and for just the smallest moment I would think that it would be her. I know it doesn't make any sense, but well… it never did."

"So… obsession?"

"I guess? It feels different though… obsession… well I know what _that_ feels like, and it's miles apart. Obsession is a scab you can't stop picking at. Love is… like taking a break from training or… finding safe harbor during a storm… or something… Honestly, Toph, I'm not good at this sort of thing."

"Yeah, yeah, it's all emotional and shit, I get it. Anything else?"

"I don't… oh-" he pounded one fist into his hand in remembrance- "all the flaming _poems_ made sense!"

"The what to the what now?"

"I know you can't read, but if your family was anything like mine, you'll have had to go to a poetry reading or two."

"Yeah, we did. Fucking boring the lot of them," Toph said idly, now with one finger most of the way up her nose.

"I agree, but it was different… after. All those ridiculous sappy love poems I used to hate… now they all make _sense._ I would sit there, and listen, and suddenly be completely sure that the damned things were about me and her. It made me paranoid at first, thinking that somebody knew, but eventually I realized that they couldn't be about me and her, they were hundreds if not thousands of years old."

"Huh. So obsession _and_ paranoia?"

"I guess…" Zuko trailed off, scratching the back of his head sheepishly. "She was just… so _warm_ ," he said quietly, half to himself.

"...Ewwwww."

"Oh, for the Sun's sake, not like _that!_ "

"Well, like _what_ then?"

"I… I'm a firebender… I don't _get_ cold. There's a fire inside me after all, or I _am_ fire, or something. So, I don't get cold… at least I _didn't,_ until Katara would leave me at night. She was just… warm, like I cannot even put into words. Everything is cold now, by comparison. All the rays of the Sun, all the bonfires, all the flows of _lava_ aren't even comparable."

Toph sat silently off in her own little world for a few long minutes then came back to herself. "Shit," she muttered.

" _Shit?" There was something in there that she didn't care for. …Why would she even be asking unless…_

She always blushed when Sokka laughed.

"Ash and bone… _Sokka_?" Zuko said in a quiet combination of surprise and horror.

Toph moved in a blur, the earth rising around Zuko, pinning his arms to his sides and his knees to his chest. Toph's face had suddenly turned a shade not dissimilar to Zuko's flames, red and burning.

"You… you… you can't!" she said now suddenly in a near panic. "You can't _tell,_ please?" she was pleading, even though she currently had him held tighter than a sheep-hog bound for market.

"Firstly," Zuko grunted, having trouble getting air into his chest, "who would believe me? Secondly, why would I do that?"

Toph fought to control her breathing for a moment, then glared at Zuko with her blind white eyes. "Swear," she said angrily.

"On my ancestors' name, I swear. No one will hear it from me."

Toph hesitated for a moment, then sighed and released him from the stone, allowing Zuko to fill his lungs with oxygen again.

"When did _that_ happen?" he croaked.

"Is that your _question?_ " Toph said bitterly.

"No. No it is not," Zuko said as he began to rub the life back into his limbs.

 _I will need to ask something useful, but not so revealing that she bolts on me,_ he mused as he shook the pins and needles out of his arms.

"Who… who taught you to bend?" he said finally. "And what was it like learning when you were blind?"

"That's two questions," Toph said with a huff, crossing her arms over her chest.

"One is a follow up question, which I allowed from you," Zuko replied.

Toph made a rude noise with her lips but sat back down anyways.

"You really want to know?" she said drawing her knees up to her chest.

"I do. That you became an earthbending master, without your parent's consent and at such a young age, is very admirable. Your style is completely unique, and ever since the Earth-Rumble I have wondered why."

Toph grinned at that. "One day, when I was little," she began, "I ran away. My mom had been treating me like one of her gravel-chewing porcelain figurines again and I was just so _sick_ of it. So, I managed to stowaway on a cart as it was leaving the family estate. After a few hours, when the noise of the city had died away, I jumped out and rolled down a hill; the side of the road embankment, I think. After that, I just started crawling around, making an absolute _wreck_ of the stupid dress mom had shoved me in, which was the point anyway, and as I'm doing it, I slipped and fell into a cave, and fell on something soft. And _that's_ how I met them."

"Them? Them who?"

"The badger-moles, Fuzzy and Cuddles."

"Fuzzy and _Cuddles_?" Zuko said with a highly amused snort.

"Shut the fuck up, I was _five!_ " Toph said, flicking one of the scattered Go pieces at him. "But I discovered that they were blind, just like me. So, I hung out with them a bit, and was able to learn earthbending. Not as a martial art, but as an extension of my senses. For them, the original earthbenders, it wasn't about fighting, it was just their way of interacting with the world. It was their _eyes_ , and now it's my eyes too."

Zuko sat in thoughtful silence for a long moment before replying. "Awesome," he said, completely sincere, his face in a wide grin, making him look much younger than he was. "That's… like something out of one of the _epics_. Awesome," he repeated.

"Please continue," Toph said waving her hand airily, "I _love_ praise." She was back to her normal self now, haughty and amusing.

 _If only Azi was this easy to help,_ Zuko thought in a flash of bitterness.

"Hey! Maybe _that's_ how you teach Aang!" Toph said suddenly. "Go back to the source! What's the original firebender?"

"Holy Sun," Zuko said without any enthusiasm. "Waterbenders to the Moon, Firebenders to the Sun, Ashes to Ashes, what's done is done."

"…Was that a _nursery rhyme_?" Toph said wryly.

"Shut up. _I_ was five once too," Zuko said without any malice.

"Probably the grump-… angriest five-year-old in the world."

"Thank you," Zuko said, mostly for refraining from calling him grumpy.

"Of course," Toph said in the same self-satisfied tone as always, "it is the duty of the _awesome_ to share their awesomeness with the _less_ awesome."

"Ridiculous," Zuko said, his mind suddenly spinning along a new idea.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"So… _where_ are we going exactly?" Aang asked as the two of them packed supplies up on to Appa's saddle.

"Legends speak of the Sun-Warriors," Zuko said, tossing a bag of rice up to him. "They were the first to learn the secrets of Holy Sun, back in the wild ages, before the age of Heroes and Akodo taught us bushido. In the stories, the city they lived in before their destruction was supposed to be on an island in the Northern Sea, not too far from where we are now."

Aang stared back at him a look of mild surprise on his face. "So… we're going to do what? Stand in some ruins and try to soak up some super old Sun-Warrior energy just by standing where they stood thousands of years ago?"

"…when you say it like that it sounds stupid."

"No! I mean, I'm sure Sokka will think it's stupid, but I've done stranger things. I'm just surprised that _you_ want to go. Didn't you say that-" he grimaced.

"Akodo fought them, and conquered them, yes," Zuko said with a shrug. "The most valuable teacher one can have is an old enemy," he quoted.

"Yeah! Yet _another_ reason I'm glad I let you join us!" Aang said brightly and turned to re-arrange the supplies on the saddle.

"Hopefully the _curse_ was just a legend," Zuko muttered under his breath.

* * *

 **A/N:** **Good morning humans, (and that one hyper-intelligent housecat) and welcome back to Avatar: The Last Dragon, everyone's favorite Sunday fanfic involving samurai, bending, and shouting in a variety of flavors. So, SO, much shouting.**

 **If you like it, or didn't, or even if you found it to be entirely neutral in content, I** _ **implore**_ **you (yes, fancy word) to leave a comment/review and/or like/kudos. While my self-esteem is not based on external validation, I will not deny that I get a nice little hit of dopamine when I see a new comment/review. Also, when I check my stats page and see that I have gotten almost as many hits on a** _ **Thursday**_ **as I did on a post day. I mean… holy shit was I blown away. If you were reading this Thursday-Friday… well, kudos/like to YOU my friend.**

 **But enough about me, you're still reading because you want som'a'dose…**

 **META-BITS**

 **Argument the First:** **So, chapter title, "the COLLISION of air and fire" obviously you throw a lot of O2 on a fire and you get MORE fire. And/or explosions. Obviously Zuko and Aang were going to have to have a talk about their respective philosophies. They are intrinsic to their bending after all. So, I think it is important to note here, in this first argument, that they are (as people often do when arguing) actually arguing for the same thing. They're just using different words for it. Zuko says "control" and all Aang hears is "non-free." Aang says he doesn't want to be "consumed," all Zuko hears is "out of control." They are the SAME thing; at least in this conversation.**

" **So," you ask, "Which of them is in the right here?" "Neither, and both" I reply. Zuko is exhibiting classic sith lord/lawful-neutral tendencies here. He really DOES believe that rage/anger is the only way to go about things. This is incorrect. He is also a member of an authoritarian government and very strongly believes that laws are there to** _ **protect**_ **people. To control those negative impulses that some have and prevent them from impinging on one another's safety and happiness. This is LESS incorrect.**

 **Aang, by contrast, is a Buddhist/chaotic-good guy (and, again, if there are any Buddhist out there among my fan base feel free to drop me a line, I love discourse and your input would be helpful in my correct characterization of Aang.) He believes that people are at their best when they are uncontrolled, when they follow their heart. He always sees the best in people, one of the reasons that Zuko is even allowed to be there. That, I think, is a very good and noble sentiment. Certainly, it has got problems in this situation but, working through those problems is the dramatic fuel that keeps the Narrative TurbinesTM turning.**

 **Zuko; team dad:** **So Katara, both in and out of canon, is most assuredly the team mom. I have tried, in my own unsubtle way, to establish that in the previous chapter. So, what does that make Zuko? Well, to my money that makes Zuko the Team Dad. Estranged father figure now bonding with his rambunctious daughter. Never mind that there's only a four-year age gap between them. Toph often acts like the spoiled nobleman daughter she is. Just because she picks her nose doesn't mean she is any less a noble, with all the arrogance and pride that that entails. Also, I think I should note that Toph and Katara's shouting match, while loud, was not as loud as Zuko's rant. As such, the existence of Zutara is still a secret to the main group at large. Cat, still in bag.**

 **Argument the Second:** **And so now we turn our attention to one of those other problems Zuko and Aang were going to have to have. Violence. Zuko is very much in favor of using violence as a means to accomplish his goals. Aang is NOT. He is a pacifist, and while Zuko knew that, I think that he assumed that Aang would have put that aside in the face of his Avatar-duty and saving the world etc. Aang, obviously, has not. The fact that Zuko believes him to be a "murderer" is extremely upsetting to Aang, and so in classic Aang fashion, he runs away. This is one of those long-standing problems I have with this, one of my favorite shows. Aang never EVER faces this dilemma. As I have had Zuko say the very universe seems to** _ **bend**_ **itself to make sure that Aang never has to make a hard decision, never has to really** _ **choose.**_ **Hell, he never even really had to let GO, like he was told he had to. I could continue in this vein for thousands upon thousands of words, but you've heard it all before. Moving on.**

 **Go; the game:** **I am not an expert Go player, but I find the game strangely fascinating. Straight lines and 2 differently colored stones. Simple, yet complex, straightforward, yet engrossing. It's a good time. And it leads us directly into…**

 **And just a** _ **dash**_ **of Tokka:** **Ah, young love. And/or a serious crush. I think everybody knows, IRL and in the Gaang, that Toph has a little crush on Sokka. Toph is extremely embarrassed by this in only the way a fifteen-year-old, with a crush on the twenty-year-old brother of the Team Mom, can be. She is of course curious as to how her experience compares to others, and as she and Zuko have established a "we can talk about shit" relationship, she is going to ask questions. Which of course gives me the opportunity to write about** _ **love**_ **, which is one of those things that every writer will have to address at some point. In my experience the best explanation I have ever heard about knowing when you're in love is that "all the songs make sense." If you have never been in love, let me tell you here and now that it is a** _ **trip**_ **. Yes all the songs DO make sense, which I have had Zuko try to explain here (using poetry as a song-analog) in his normal fumbly manner. Here's hoping you think I did it justice.**

 **Thanks again for reading! You receive extra points for making it through this long and mostly self-indulgent author's note. Remember to like/kudos/subscribe/comment/review/run around/freak out.**

 **.**

 **.**

 **NEXT WEEK on a very special "Avatar: The Last Dragon"...**

 **Zuko goes on a field trip, the first of several.**

 **TUNE IN. Same Zuko time, Same Zuko channel!**

 **Original post date: 20 January 2019**


	9. The Island of the Fire-Dancer

**A/N:** **The Following is Rated T; for Truth.**

 **It contains dialog, where appropriate, from S3E13 "The Firebending Masters."**

 **Reader discretion is advised.**

* * *

Chapter 9 "The Island of the Fire-Dancer"

* * *

 **Spring, year 12 in the reign of Fire-Lord Ozai**

"Ash and bone, we've been flying for hours," Zuko growled. "I don't know why, but I thought that this thing would be a lot faster."

Appa the Sky-Bison, being the _thing_ in question, growled back.

"Appa's right, Zuko," Aang said from his seat on the bison's head. "In our group, typically we start our adventures off with a more _upbeat_ attitude."

"…Ridiculous," Zuko snorted.

"No it isn't! Having a positive outlook on life is one of the great pathways to spiritual peace and serenity," Aang said happily. "The sooner you realize that, the sooner you will find peace within your own heart."

They remained silent for a few long minutes.

"So… why are we going to this island again?" Aang said looking back over his shoulder at Zuko.

"…I thought I explained it to you?"

"No. Well… yes, a bit," Aang said, waving his hand in a somewhat whimsical manner. "Something-something Sun-Warriors, something-something firebending. You just seemed so certain that this was the right thing to do… I had no objections!"

Zuko's mouth fell open in shock. "You came all this way out here, _alone,_ with _me_ , and you didn't even know why we were going? This could have been a _trap_!"

"But it _isn't_!"

"How can you be sure? Spirits knows _Katara_ thinks it's a trap." She had been absolutely _livid_ when Aang had announced that the two of them were going on a "field trip."

"She'll get over it," Aang said with a shrug. "Besides, it just seems like…" he flipped himself around from his position on Appa's head to consider Zuko thoughtfully "… seems like I know you from somewhere? Like we knew each other… from before?" Aang's eyebrows crinkled and for a moment Zuko could practically _see_ the specter of Roku hanging over him.

"Your trust, in _this_ instance, is not misplaced," Zuko said with a scowl. "We are going to Taiyoshima, the homeland of the ancient Sun-Warriors, to see if we can find anything that might help you resolve your inner conflict."

" _Our_ inner conflict," Aang said with a grin.

" _I_ am not conflicted," Zuko growled. "I am _angry_. And I will use that anger as a weapon to save my people."

"And after the war is over?" Aang said, one eyebrow raised.

"There will always be dishonorable people who deserve my wrath."

"And if there _aren't_?"

"Then _that_ means I have fallen asleep, and have arrived in whatever magical dreamland it is that _you_ live in."

"Protest all you want," Aang said, turning back around with a smile. "I can feel the good in you, the conflict."

"There _is_ no conflict," Zuko growled. He could not _afford_ to be unsure of himself.

People were depending on him.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

A few interminable days of flying later they finally came upon what Zuko _really_ hoped was the heavily forested island of Taiyoshima. Ancient looking ruins jutted up, peaking through the dense canopy of trees in places, and it was the work of almost an hour to find somewhere that the gargantuan sky-bison could land safely.

"This _must_ be it," Zuko said after they had landed on what he supposed was the remains of an ancient stone dock near the shoreline. "Look how all the buildings look like the temples of fire." He gestured at the broken, yet vaguely familiar constructions that were still visible, rising above the trees in the distance.

"Well, if nothing else, we've learned something about architecture," Aang said, airbending himself to the ground gracefully and patting Appa on the flank. "Isn't learning fun!" he said, elbowing Zuko genially.

Zuko scowled at him briefly then set off along the smooth stone path leading away from the dock. The ancient stone causeway which it led to rapidly dissolved into a mess of tree roots and overturned stone, forcing Zuko to move slowly, watching his step. The Avatar, by contrast, practically floated from stone to stone as he followed behind, exclaiming loudly over the many carvings that flanked the mostly ruined road.

"Hey, hotman! Come get a load of _this_ one!"

Zuko did his best to ignore him.

Many of the carvings displayed rather grotesque faces, their mouths open, all fanged teeth and glaring eyes. While Zuko found them all rather ridiculous looking, Aang had begun to take great delight in attempting to mimic the faces, then turning and asking Zuko if he had gotten it right.

Zuko, though he would never be able to explain how, refrained from killing the boy in irritation.

Aang continued in this vein for a long while…

…until one of the statues tried to kill him.

He was laughing uproariously over a statue that had its tongue extended out of its mouth in a wavy serpent-like fashion when, still giggling to himself, he backed over a tripwire strung between two elevated roots. Using his wind-borne speed, he flipped out of the way as a rope noose, intended for his foot most likely, flew into the air.

"Woof, that was close!" Aang said, still smiling. "Though I suppose it wouldn't have been too bad to be-"

A statue further into the tree line suddenly exhaled an enormous gout of flame, igniting the rope noose and the space around it in a dramatically fatal fashion.

"Never mind," Aang said, his smile drooping. "No trap rides for me, thanks."

"This place is supposed to have been uninhabited for millennia," Zuko growled, rising from the crouch he had assumed to examine the trip wire. "For this to still be working…" he began to scan the forest suspiciously, "...someone must still _be_ here."

"Why… why _wouldn't_ there be someone here?" Aang said, now seeming a bit nervous as he scanned the forest as well.

"This island… is supposed to be cursed," Zuko said his yellow eye meeting the Avatar's grey pair.

"WHAT!?"

"Legends said that when Akodo came here to bring the island into the newly formed Fire-Nation, the Sun-Warriors said that they would only accept his lordship if he could prove that he was greater than Holy Sun."

"…And?"

"Akodo said that he only had to prove that he was greater than _them_ , and then he declared war on them." Zuko shrugged. "He did that a lot. But afterwards he said that his dead and defeated foes had cursed this place and that no one should bother coming back."

"So… why are WE here?"

"If anyone is allowed on cursed ground, it is the Avatar I should think. Besides, if you read between the lines, I don't think he actually killed them all."

"No?"

"No. I am not unique in that I find it odd that Akodo got _married_ about two weeks after he declared the island cursed and off limits. There is also the fact that the family name of his wife, Ginang-Araw Nisiko, is not only _unusual_ for the Fire-Nation at that time, but it only appears in the chronicles _after_ the conquest. I'm pretty sure he married one of them and then just _said_ he wiped them all out."

"So, there might still be Sun-Warriors left?" Aang said, his spirits brightening.

"Unlikely… but possible," Zuko said with a snort. "Be cautious, there will be more traps." Then, moving at half the pace he had before, he continued down the ruined causeway.

"You know, if this whole Fire-Lording thing doesn't work out maybe you could be a history professor!" Aang called after him.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Zuko had been right, there _had_ been more traps.

And unfortunately, despite his propensity for caution, he admitted that he had gotten them both stuck in one.

 _Not that the boy is ever going to shut up about it._

"You just _had_ to touch the golden egg, didn't you?" Aang said, sounding, for the first time in Zuko's hearing, bitter.

"We are here seeking knowledge, and it had something _written_ on it," Zuko growled, he had barely even _bumped_ the thing. Something he probably would not have done if the idiot next to him hadn't shouted at him so suddenly.

"Yeah! Most likely 'Don't touch me! I trigger a bunch of green slimy stuff!'" Aang said.

The two of them sat, or, more accurately, _hung_ in angry silence for a moment, embedded in a thick viscous goo, their faces pressed upwards against a gridwork of bars, which thankfully allowed them to breathe.

"HELP!" Aang bellowed, his voice enormously magnified by his airbending.

"Who in the ash are you yelling to?" Zuko snapped. "I told you, nobody has lived here for millennia. And even if there IS someone, they are not likely to be friendly."

"Well… what do _you_ think we should do?"

There was a long pause.

"...Think about our place in the universe?" Zuko said weakly.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Night had fallen.

"This was the worst idea," Aang said.

Zuko said nothing.

"I can't believe you got us both trapped in this!"

Zuko continued saying nothing.

"Of all the people I thought I would be… HEY! Are you _sleeping!_ "

"I was _trying_ to," Zuko growled finally.

"How can you just sleep while we're-"

"Because there isn't anything I can flaming well do about it right now!" Zuko roared. "Maybe in the morning this… slime will have hardened and we can chip ourselves out."

"You think so?" Aang said hopefully.

Zuko experimentally flexed the hand that was embedded in the goo. It felt no less sticky or tactile than it had several hours ago.

"Probably not," Zuko muttered.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"Sixty-four pots of tea on the wall, sixty-four pots of tea! Take one down, pass it around… Sixty-three pots of tea on the wall."

"Perhaps I am dead," Zuko said, mostly to himself. "Dead and being punished by the spirits for failing to save my people."

"Sixty-three pots of tea on the wall, sixty-three pots of tea…"

"It is a plausible explanation."

"... take one down, pass it around…"

"I come so far... only to be trapped with the most ANNOYING HUMAN in the ash-spawned WORLD!" Zuko roared, struggling vainly against the goo that held him fast.

"Well, you're not exactly the best company either!" Aang shouted back.

"Just GO TO SLEEP!" Zuko shouted.

"I _CAN'T_!" Aang said, suddenly sounding on the verge of tears.

Zuko paused, his temper evaporating. "Why not?"

"I… I don't like being… restrained," Zuko could feel the boy struggle feebly in the slime next to him for a moment. "I… Air is supposed to _soar,_ you know? And I don't… I really really _really_ don't like enclosed spaces!"

… _He's claustrophobic?_

"Ok," Zuko breathed, "you're afraid. That's… we can work with that. Close your eyes."

"That just makes it _worse,_ " Aang said pitifully.

"Ok, just… focus on the stars. Watch them shine and lose your focus."

Aang fell still, apparently trying to do as Zuko asked, although he couldn't really see him as he was on his blind left side.

"Listen to your heartbeat, and slow your breathing to-"

"Are you trying to teach _me_ to meditate?" Aang said, suddenly skeptical.

"Do you want my help or not?" Zuko growled.

Aang exhaled in a puff and with audible effort brought his breathing under control.

"Slow your breathing, keep it in time with your heartbeat, feel them both slow," Zuko continued, his voice now low, almost droning. "Now, when they are there, and you can hear the blood rush in your ears, you will also feel something else... You will feel your _fear_." Zuko felt Aang wiggle uncomfortably but pressed on. "You will feel your fear pulse, in time with your heart, in time with your breath. It will pulse lower, in your stomach. Breathe in with that pulse… and breathe it _out_." Zuko matched his breathing with the Avatar's as he continued to speak. "Breathe in, let the breath mix and mingle with the fear, let them saturate one another, then breathe it out... as heat." He sat silent for a long while letting the boy do just that, their breaths eventually both steaming in the chill of the spring night.

"It's… it's not fire," Aang said quietly.

"No. Dragon's Breath takes a bit more focus and control."

"Oh… You know, _I'm_ a Dragon. My dojo anyways."

"Yes. I know."

There was another long pause, full of steaming breaths.

"This… this actually helps… thank you, Zuko."

"Of the few things I do know well, fear is most likely the foremost."

"…I'd never have guessed."

"Akodo said, 'Bravery is not the absence of fear. Courage is the execution of duty in spite of fear.' You cannot be brave without first being afraid."

"But _you_ never seemed…"

"Control. Always. Acknowledge the problem, learn to counter it, move _forward_. Always." He sighed. "The first thing that always must be controlled is _oneself…"_

There was another long pause, breaths steaming in the dark.

"I am sorry," Zuko said quietly. "I got us caught in here, and in the morning, after the Sun rises, I _will_ get us back out again. I swear."

"Ok…" Aang said. And inhaling and exhaling deeply he gradually fell asleep.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

The Sun rose.

And Zuko's eye shot open, not in reaction to the light, but at the sensation of being poked in the head.

A small girl in red and gold sat on her haunches in front of him, eyeing him curiously, poking him in the face with a stick.

A girl with yellow eyes.

 _Ash and bone, I've started hallucinating already,_ Zuko thought irritably. _Why else would I be seeing…_

"Oh, so you _are_ alive then? How fun!" the hallucination girl chirped happily, her voice hauntingly familiar. "I suppose you'd like out of there, hmmm?"

 _Definitely an odd hallucination, she's never this chipper, not even when-_

"Yes _please_ ," Aang said winningly, and the girl ran off.

"You can see her too?" Zuko said wonderingly.

"Yeah! Was it just me or did she look like…"

"My sister?" Zuko said, utterly confused. "Yes, she does. Maybe six or seven years ago… she must be a _spirit!_ " he said coming to a sudden realization.

"How do you figure?" Aang said.

"I have seen this before! Anthropomorphic spirits often take on the guises of someone you already know, someone who represents to you their metaphysical nature. I saw one a few months ago, in the village of Jang Hui, that was a dead ringer for Katara."

"Uh… Zuko? I don't think that…"

The "potentially a spirit-girl" came trotting back into view, carrying a large ceramic jar on her back.

"Now you two are going to want to hold your breath," she said as she unsealed the jar. "This is NOT going to smell good."

It transpired that it smelled a great deal worse than "not good."

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"So, you two are treasure hunters, huh?" The maybe-a-spirit-girl asked, sitting on her haunches as the two men removed the remaining gunk from their clothes, and in Zuko's case, hair.

"Oh no. We're just exploring," Aang said brightly, seeming happy to be both out of the confining slime _and_ to have found someone on the island in a better overall mood than Zuko.

"Exploring? Don't you know that this island is…" she waggled her fingers at them, "…cursed?"

Aang barked a laugh and Zuko growled.

"We are here seeking the ancient wisdom of the Sun-Warriors," Zuko said briskly. "If you are one of them…"

"Who me?" The maybe-a- _ghost_ -girl said, indicating herself. "No, I'm just a guest. There's nobody here but me and… um… one other."

"Oh," Aang said dejectedly.

"But, if you're trying to learn _firebending_ moves, you can just go to the High Temple. The old guys carved _loads_ of stuff on to the walls there."

"Really?! That's exactly what we're here for!" Aang said, jumping to his feet in excitement.

"Come on then!" The questionably-mortal-girl laughed and began to jog away.

Aang made to follow her, but was caught up short as Zuko grabbed him by the back of his robes and held him up in the air like a disobedient puppy. A tremendous feat given that the Avatar was only a few inches shorter than him nowadays.

" _Perhaps_ you should not sprint off after the mysterious spirit?" Zuko said darkly.

"She seems alright," Aang said, shrugging unbotheredly in mid-air.

"She has taken the form of my _sister._ Have you somehow _forgotten_ what my sister did to you?"

"No, but this is the younger, less evil, version of your sister, right?"

"Even as a child Azula could be… difficult. I would not define her demeanor as overly warm. Not unless it suited her to be so anyway." His eye narrowed in the direction the probably-a- _dangerous_ -spirit had gone in. "…We must be cautious."

"Fiiiine," Aang sighed, "Cautious it is, Hotman-sensei!"

"And stop _calling_ me that!"

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"This is amazing!" Aang said, voice full of wonder.

The High Temple of the Sun-Warriors was a massive, hollow stone construction, vaguely reminiscent of the Temple of the Ancestors. Its tile mosaics spiraled in hauntingly similar patterns and in the same red, black and gold colors. The major difference being that the inner walls, and the vast multitude of freestanding pillars and obelisks inside them, were absolutely _covered_ in pictograms of firebending katas.

"Yeah, they're pretty neat," the some-variety-of-apparition-girl said, seeming less impressed. "I've spent a lot of time in here, teaching myself how to firebend."

"You can firebend?" Zuko said, eyeing her suspiciously.

"Yep! I especially like…" she trotted over to one of the freestanding walls near the back of the temple, "…this one."

Zuko followed behind her and looked over the forms carefully. It seemed a somewhat odd variant on the "fire storm" kata. Curious, he took the first stance and began the sequence, trying to add the modifications that the pictograms suggested.

But there was only a strange twisting sensation in his gut, and when he kicked out his foot, he only produced the barest hint of flame along with a noise like ripping paper.

Aang and the most-likely-a-fox-spirit-girl giggled at him.

Zuko only growled and tried again.

The flame, such as it was, was even weaker, the odd hollow feeling even more powerful.

"Not like _that_ ," the only-part-human-at-best-girl said stifling a snort and yet another giggle, "you have to do it like… _this_."

And then she bent fire…

… _Gold_ fire.

"Ash and bone…" Zuko breathed, eye wide in shock, "what… what…"

The _definitely_ -a-spirit-now-girl didn't respond, but instead continued bending, her movements light, precise, and rhythmic, almost a dance. She leapt, she spun, she practically _flew_ ; all the while, her flames the color of sunshine, a transcendent look on her face.

It was beautiful.

"Wow," Aang breathed, his eyes alight.

The HAS-to-be-a-spirit-girl finished the sequence, bowed solemnly, and then resumed smiling at them.

"I think you might be good at this one, Mr Arrow," she said, pointing at the sequence she had just done. "You probably want the one over there, frowny," she gestured at a section carved along the back wall.

Zuko, forgetting his earlier misgivings about the odd-spirit-child strode off in the direction she had indicated, leaving Aang to continue complimenting her emphatically, a small blush beginning to grow at his attention.

The section she had indicated took up the entire back wall of the temple and had many different katas, most of which looked much more familiar to Zuko. They were much like the style he had been taught, but with seemingly minor variations in form here and there. A twist of the wrist here, a changed foot placement there, the balance of weight oddly different but somehow clear, indicated by a series of carved arrows.

Zuko looked over one sequence for a moment, noting the differences. That done, and with a hint of trepidation, he took the first stance and _bent._

Unbidden, his mind filled with the vague impression of anger, his stomach suddenly warm as though he had had a large drink of sake. It was anger as always, but somehow... different.

There was no guilt.

His fury was… _clean._ Clean, pure, _righteous_ fury.

His flames roared through the air as he bent, his mouth agape at the sensation. Roared through the air like booms of thunder, like a cheering crowd, like _victory_ made manifest in the very fire itself.

"Spirits… Oh _Spirits_ ," he breathed, entirely in awe, as he finished the sequence.

 _What the ASH was THAT? It was like… like the SONG made into fire! Like- like-_

His thoughts were suddenly cut off, his muscles tensing in instinctive response to the sound of _steel_ being drawn behind him.

It was Azula, full size this time, a nodachi in her hands as she glared at him from behind the Te Ura Gasumi stance. Still operating on reflex, Zuko's sword exited its sheath as well.

"Damn it, Ozai. You swore!" she snarled. "You swore you'd never come here!"

 _No._

Zuko had been mistaken. This wasn't his sister.

 _No!_

His sister never worn her hair long like that.

 _Nononononononono_

His sister had never used a sword where fire would do.

 _Good spirits, I've gone mad,_ he thought as his sword tumbled from his nerveless fingers.

His sister didn't have brown _Kitsu_ eyes.

"…Mom?"

The ghost's eyes widened in apparent horror and her blade fell to the floor as her hands flew to her mouth.

 _She can't be here. She CAN'T… she can't… I got her killed! I… I…_

"Oh… Oh no, Zuzu. Oh…"

 _I can't…_ Zuko began to back away from the phantasm. _I can't… Any face but her's… PLEASE! I b-beg-_

" _YOU DARE TO BEG IN FRONT OF ME!"_

Zuko's eye widened in horror, the image of bright white flame careening towards his now dead eye.

"Zuko? What-"

Zuko didn't, _couldn't_ , hear the rest of what she said.

Because, for the first time since he had been a very small child, Akodo Zuko ran away.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

He was sobbing.

Sobbing like he had never done before.

Sobbing like his heart was trying to crawl out of his chest and shatter itself on the ground.

The specter found him there, sitting in seiza, his fists and eyes clenched tightly, as he knelt in one of the empty plazas that were scattered about the ruins. The Sun shone down in patchy rays through the dense canopy, beams of sunlight making shifting spots of light and shadow as the wind shook the treetops and Zuko tried desperately, and futilely, to rebottle the torrent of emotions that were making him bawl like a child.

"Zuko?... Baby-boy, what-"

"Do NOT," Zuko snarled without turning, his eye still full of water. "Do not _speak_ to me in _her_ voice! My mother is _dead,_ spirit! Dead and _ash_ in the Temple of the Ancestors."

"Zuzu, I'm not. Baby-boy, please look at me."

"I… c-can't," even rage was gone from him in the face of his mother's specter.

 _Weak!_ the thing inside him hissed.

The ghost of Akodo Ursa knelt next to him, and wrapped her arms around him, making soft shushing noises as Zuko continued to shake in suppressed emotion.

She even smelled like he remembered, like incense smoke and flowers.

"I got you killed," Zuko whispered. "I got you _killed_ and I don't even know why. Spirits, mom, I'm sorry. I'm…" he broke down in sobs again.

"Hush now, baby-boy."

It was a very long while before Zuko could even catch his breath enough to speak. Every time he thought he was close, something else would set him off again, a mix of guilt and sadness and utter terrible _longing_ for a mother he knew was dead, flowing forth unstoppably like blood from a mortal wound.

"I…" his breath had only just stopped hitching, allowing him to begin to be cogent, "… I know that you are not really her," he began leaning away from the embrace and looking away, "but I-"

Then Ursa flicked him in the forehead.

Hard.

"Ow! Ash and bone, what was that fo- OW!" Ursa had flicked him again.

" _Language,_ " she said repressively. "Just because you've gotten all grown up is no excuse for bad manners."

"It… it's really _you_ … isn't it?" Zuko said, knowing full well that a spirit that was impersonating his mother would of course lie.

But the head flicking thing was so painfully nostalgic that he was willing to suspend his disbelief, if only for a little while.

"I _have_ been trying to tell you that, Zuzu," Ursa said, one elegant and, again, painfully nostalgic eyebrow cocked in amusement.

"... father killed you," Zuko said shortly, trying, and failing, to scowl at the apparition of his mother.

"So… you know then?" she said, her eyes falling to the ground in shame.

Which was a look he had never seen on his mother's face before and somehow actually made him more certain of her reality.

"That you killed grandfather? Yes, I know. It…" he gulped "it took me the better part of a decade to figure it out. I never… I never even asked. Ash, mom, I'm sor- OW!"

"Of course you didn't," Ursa said after withdrawing her hand. "Your father and I agreed that it was best that you be kept busy, and out of trouble. You were…" she suddenly looked tremendously sad as her hand moved to lightly hover over his scar "...you were always the bravest little boy, and in the Royal Palace brave little boys can get themselves in trouble."

"I know," Zuko grunted, restraining another sniffle. "I mean, I know that… that it was my fault somehow… that you had to… uh…" he trailed off.

"No, it _wasn't,_ " Ursa said, her eyebrows creasing down, at once becoming the spitting image of Azula in her restrained fury. "It was your _father's_ fault."

Zuko's eye shot to hers and widened in surprise.

"Your father… I _told_ him not to, to just wait patiently, but he didn't listen. After Lu Ten died…" Ursa sighed again, finding calm, "after your cousin died, your father went before the Fire-Lord and asked Azulon to make _him_ his heir. He said that Iroh's bloodline was dead, and that _he_ had two children, one of whom was a _prodigy_."

"Ash and bleeding Bo- OW," Ursa had flicked him in the head, almost idly.

"Your grandfather was furious, obviously. He said that Ozai should learn the pain of losing a son as well. He ordered your father to kill you."

Zuko's eye widened in horror.

"Azi overheard the whole thing, eavesdropping again thankfully, and came running to tell me." Ursa's eyes darkened further in remembered fury. "He was going to do it. Your father said it was his duty and that… he was going to _do_ it. I told him I wouldn't let him, I begged him not to, on my knees I begged, and he eventually relented. We decided-"

Zuko lost whatever she said next as the gears in his head began clicking into place.

 _She BEGGED,_ he thought, _and then when I… when I begged in front of him it must have reminded him of her._

"-the only way I could stay alive," Ursa was saying as he came back to the conversation. "So, I agreed, and went into exile."

"Why… why didn't he kill you?" Zuko said. "Father was never one for leniency… and you'd… you'd committed _treason._ " The idea that his mother, the kindest, most pious, sword-master that Zuko had ever met would have done something like that was an idea that he was having trouble wrapping his head around.

"Ozai…" Ursa sighed again, "your father and I loved one another once. He was a very passionate man, always very driven towards his goals. Once upon a time that was _me_. Later… it was the _throne._ I think there was still some of that love for me left in his heart. That was why I was allowed to leave, I think."

 _He loved her, and the son he was forced to exile her for disparaged her sacrifice… I'm lucky he didn't kill me on the spot._

"And… the girl?" That was the only thing left unexplained to Zuko.

"Kitsuyi?" Ursa said, smiling once again. "My little Kiyi was a nice little surprise about eight months after I arrived here. Finally a little girl that I could raise without your father breathing down her neck."

"I have _another_ sister…" Zuko said, a combination of wonder and horror in his voice.

Wonder because it _was_ wonderful, horror because, even before she had lost the plot, Azula had been vastly irritating in only the way one's little sister could be.

"So, who's the boy you're with?" Ursa said, brightening up, "I must say I'm surprised, but I won't judge you dear. Love comes in many shapes and sizes, and I have always said that-"

"W-WHAT! NO! I'm not… Ash and BONE, mother. Why would you think th- OW!"

"Language."

"What, under all of Holy Sun, would make you think that I'm- That we're-"

"Oh, I don't. But I have always found that the best way to lift a young man out of the dumps is to impugn his 'honor,'" Ursa said with an exceedingly familiar smirk. "Not that there is anything wrong with boys liking boys; your great-uncle Taku, for instance, had the most delightful-"

"NO, mother, I like women, thank you," Zuko said cutting her off quickly. "I do _not_ need to hear about whatever it was that great-uncle Taku did, thank you."

"Oh? So are there any contenders? Anyone _special_ you want to tell your mother about?"

Zuko stared at her, mouth agape. "I have thought you were _dead!_ I haven't seen you in over a decade! And now you want to talk about my _love life_?"

"Well, we have a lot to catch up on! We ought to start _somewhere_. What about that Shosuro girl? I know you had the _biggest_ most _adorable_ crush-"

"You are worse than _uncle_!" Zuko cried.

"Mother? Can we have breakfast?" Kiyi said from behind Zuko. "I'm _starving_!"

"Oh, yes, I'm sorry baby-girl!" Ursa said. "But first I need to introduce our guest! This is-"

"My brother, I figured that out," Kiyi said with an eye-roll.

"Manners, Kitsuyi."

"Ugggh," the girl groaned, her posture sagging, "I, Akodo Kitsuyi, greet you, my elder brother." She bowed quickly. "Can we _eat_ now, please?"

"And our other guest?"

"Oh, he's still in the High Temple. He's Aang, the Avatar!"

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Breakfast… breakfast was good.

Not in variety or taste however. Ursa and Kiyi apparently subsisted on wild fruits and nuts that dotted the fertile landscape, supplemented by a small plot of wild rice that they cultivated in a reclaimed Sun-Warrior field and very occasionally by the wild boar-q-pine that would become caught in Kiyi's flame traps.

But it was the _company_ that made breakfast good.

Kiyi was a marvel. She was bright, energetic, and funny, Azula in miniature, but without so many hard edges or venom. She talked and talked and _talked_ , about firebending, about the island, about any and everything she could think of. The girl was obviously starved for company and Aang was only too happy to meet her halfway.

Ursa sat and watched the two of them converse excitedly, a small amused smile on her face. Zuko was puzzled for a moment but then…

 _Is she… is my sister FLIRTING with the Avatar?_

Zuko admitted that he was not normally aware of this sort of thing. His uncle had always insisted that Zuko was constantly attracting all sorts of female attention, but Zuko had always assumed that he was simply saying that to either annoy him, or because he felt, for some reason, that Zuko needed a boost to his self-esteem. Zuko did feel as though he might have been getting the hang of it, but he was also reasonably sure that Katara was _far_ too odd of a girl to base any standardized methodology upon.

That said, he narrowed his eye at his youngest sister and the Avatar.

 _Faint blush, leaning towards him… did she just put her hand on his KNEE!?_

"Firebending! Now!" Zuko shouted, jumping to his feet.

"W-what? Right now?" Aang protested. "We've barely been out of that goo for-"

"Did we come here to learn, or did we come here to… _chat_?!"

"I'll come with you!" Kiyi said brightly.

"NO! Uh… no. You will stay here… and… sleep. Yes! You are still growing, and you require sleep." Zuko nodded at the obvious logic of his argument.

The fact that it was only mid-afternoon at this point in the day had somehow escaped his notice and Ursa snorted in laughter behind one hand.

"You're not the boss of me!" Kiyi shouted, jumping to her feet, a tiny mirror of Zuko's scowl on her own face.

"The ashpits I'm not!" Zuko thundered.

"Language," Ursa said mildly.

"Mooooom?" Kiyi whined turning to her mother and pouting.

"I am afraid that you _do_ have chores to do, dear. I am sure that after they are done, you can run off to play with your new friends." She raised her eyes to Zuko and smirked.

 _Fine. I think I can hide a body in the time it will take… No. Wait. No killing. I must not kill the Avatar._

"Listen to your mother," Zuko growled as he hoisted Aang off his feet and half dragged him to the High Temple.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"What was _that_ all about?" Aang said, seeming rather bemused as the two of them entered the High Temple.

Zuko glared at him for a moment before coming to the conclusion that Aang was probably just as clueless as _he_ usually was in these situations.

"I just… I don't want my sister… getting too attached. We're going to have to leave here eventually."

Aang shrugged and then his face lit up in a beatific smile. "I'm really glad you got to see your mom again."

"I… I'm glad too," Zuko said quietly. He knew he should have felt embarrassed at anyone having seen him lose his composure as he had, but…

 _This is a miracle, and there can be no shame in something like that._

He snorted, fighting back the smile that was threatening to creep on to his face, and scowled half-heartedly at the Avatar.

"Firebending!" Zuko exclaimed. "We are here to _firebend,"_ and he suited his words by igniting the many braziers and torches in the temple with a wave, their light illuminating sequence after sequence of carved firebending kata.

"Yeah! This place is _amazing!_ " Aang said brightly. "And your _sister_ … just WOW!"

 _No. No killing. I must not kill the Avatar,_ Zuko thought gritting his teeth. _He is just talking about her technique._

"When you and your mother were… having a private moment… she dragged me back here and did _these,_ " Aang said, walking over and indicating one of the walls.

The sequences depicted on this section were again subtly different than the forms Zuko knew, but still very obviously firebending.

"It was a sort of _dance._ And I really _got_ it. It was a… _sad_ dance, it made me think of my people, and how much I miss them all. I think that all these different styles are all for different feelings! I had her read the titles to me, and they're all ancient words for different emotions. The one she liked," Aang paced over to the panel they had first examined, "is 'Yorokobi' which means something like 'joy' or 'rejoicing.' The one she told you to go to," he moved again to the sequence that Zuko had actually been able to do, "reads as 'Seigi no Ikari' which means 'to be affronted' or maybe 'justly angry.'" He spun around grinning widely. "It's just so cool!"

Zuko nodded in agreement.

"This is so great! Now you don't have to be angry anymore."

Zuko paused, his eye sweeping around the temple, examining the multitude of pictograms contemplatively.

"I will always be angry," Zuko said quietly.

"But… but…"

"There is much in my life that deserves my anger," Zuko continued. "What _this_ shows me is that firebending isn't _just_ anger. It is the whole range of human emotion, sadness and joy and anger and love. There is strength in all of them."

"But… I don't want to be angry," Aang said pleadingly.

"Aang," Zuko said, putting his hand on the younger man's shoulder, "I don't think you have to be."

Aang's mouth dropped open in surprise at Zuko's very first use of his given name.

"Firebending… is life. All of it. And as long as you feel… _something,_ I think you may have the fire you need." Zuko waved his free arm around the temple. "I think we will find that there are as many different emotions and styles of firebending as there are kinds of people. I will not let go of anger… but I can accept that there can be other strengths as well. The power of grief, the love of family, the simple… _joy_ of being alive. I will bear this in mind in the future." He took a deep breath and a step back from Aang.

Then he bowed at the waist, right fist in his left palm.

"I thank you, Togashi Aang, for letting me join you. Without your acceptance I might never have found… _all_ of this. In Akodo's name, I thank you."

He straightened from his bow to find Aang almost in tears.

"That… that was just _so_ …" Aang found himself unable to finish and, aided by his windborne speed, he ducked close to Zuko and hugged him.

Zuko, arms pinned to his sides by Aang's hug, was frozen in shock.

"…What in the ASH are you doing?" Zuko hissed after a long entirely flabbergasted pause.

"Hugging you!" Aang said happily. "We are having a _moment._ "

"You will release me… or I will hang you by your _toes..._ OVER A VOLCANO!" Zuko roared.

Aang… snuggled closer.

"No hugging!" Zuko protested, trying to extricate himself. "There is no _hugging_ in firebending!"

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Later that day, after Zuko had cleared one of the plazas of tree cover, Aang had summoned Appa with an amusingly shaped whistle, bringing the bison and the bulk of their supplies to them.

Which had also meant that _Kiyi_ had discovered Appa.

Never in Zuko's life had he thought to see the spitting image of Azula _coo_ with affection over anything.

It was _wildly_ disconcerting.

Zuko had been so distracted and Kiyi so taken by the beast that, before he could even realize what was happening, she had persuaded Aang to take her flying.

Her exuberant whoops now echoed around the ruins as Zuko watched, a scowl on his face, his arms behind his back as always, as he contemplated the new, but no less powerful, protective impulses he was feeling.

 _I must not kill the Avatar. Kiyi is only eleven, and is just flirting with him because he is the only male she has ever seen who wasn't her brother. I must not kill the Avatar…_

"That looks like fun," Ursa said coming up behind him.

Zuko grunted in acknowledgment, if not agreement, and the two of them watched Appa for a long moment.

"Zuko… when are we going to talk about why you're here?"

Zuko turned his head and looked at his mother over his shoulder.

"Whenever you would like," he said quietly, "but it will not be… a _pleasant_ discussion."

Ursa drew up alongside him and they watched her youngest daughter pilot Appa in a loop-de-loop.

"You're quite certain that creature is safe?" she said, her eyes narrowing.

"I've seen him catch someone who fell off his back from a height of eighty yards," Zuko said with a nod. Appa was not the problem here.

Ursa nodded in acceptance and they continued watching the sky-bison.

"…Father is insane," Zuko said after a long moment. "He is insane, and I have declared Sengoku."

Ursa's eyebrows shot up in surprise.

"He… he plans to burn the entire Earth-Continent to the ground, our colonies included."

"Damnit, Oz," Ursa said quietly, bringing her hand to the bridge of her nose.

"I will not allow it," Zuko continued. "So, I declared Sengoku and I, along with anyone else who will stand with me, will defeat him and put an end to this destructive conflict."

"… and so you sought out the Avatar to help you," Ursa said sounding rather resigned. "Interesting gambit. How did you even know where to look for him?"

"Ah… _That_ is a long story."

"Well it doesn't look like your sister will be finished anytime soon," Ursa said. Kiyi, who had long ago grabbed the reins from Aang, flew through their vision once again, attempting to see how many barrel-rolls she could get Appa to do. "So why don't you tell me?"

So, Zuko did.

When he had begun, he had only intended to give the barest outline of what had happened, but as he continued he found the entirety of the story flowing out of him, drawn out at first by Ursa's probing questions, then by simple narrative momentum.

Like poison being drawn from a wound.

As Ursa listened she grew paler and paler, her brown eyes growing wider and wider, eventually filling with tears.

After he had finished Ursa exhaled deeply, wiping a single remaining tear from her eyes. "You listen to _me_ , Akodo Zuko. That… that _man_ is NOT your father," she said putting both her hands on his shoulders and glaring up at him. " _You_ are going to raise an army, march on Otosan Uchi, save our people, and your sister. Do I make myself clear?"

She might have been back in Otosan Uchi setting him a list of sword forms to practice.

"Yes, mother," Zuko said with a grin and they hugged one another.

"Hey!" Aang shouted genially as Appa landed behind them. "How come _she_ gets a hug? I thought that there was 'no hugging' in firebending!"

"Maybe because she's my MOTHER, you flaming idiot!" Zuko roared over the top of her head.

"Language," Ursa said quietly, still hugging him.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

They spent the better part of the next two weeks on the island learning, and _relearning_ , firebending.

Aang's progress was nothing short of improbable for someone who had barely managed to summon a puff of smoke the week before. Once he had managed to avoid his first and most important obstacle, his fear of his own latent anger, he took to his new form of bending with the same nearly boundless enthusiasm as he did everything else.

Zuko DID wish that he would pay better attention while he was trying to teach him, however.

Kiyi turned out to be a great help as well, not only could she read the ancient Sun-Warrior script, but she was herself an obvious firebending prodigy, having mastered every form in the temple without even the aid of a tutor.

 _So, it seems that I alone did not receive the blessing of the heavens,_ Zuko thought, finding, isolating, and crushing utterly, the brief flare of envy he felt. He would NOT be envious of his newest sister, she was a miracle, and not only did it not do to spit in the face of providence, she was… well… she was his _sister_.

He had already failed Azula, he would not fail Kitsuyi as well.

All of this being said, Zuko was still the oldest, had the most practical experience, and thus was still the sensei. Aang still needed to learn aggression, or perhaps it would be better described as simply _passion_. Kiyi had never used firebending for anything other than her own amusement and to relieve her boredom. Her fire _dancing_ was beautiful, but ultimately very rigid, formulaic, and not at all effective in combat, where adaptation and improvisation was key.

Zuko did his best to teach both of them.

"BREATHE, burn you! Fire comes from the breath! Inhale and…" Zuko thrust his fist forward with a shout, red fire blooming with its now characteristic roaring boom.

He had a LOT of righteous anger.

"But… if I yell, I'm probably just going to use my airbending," Aang said, slumped where he sat in exhaustion.

 _His stamina needs some work too,_ Zuko thought.

"I am NOT going to… scream like some sort of animal!" Kiyi said bitterly, her arms crossed tight across her chest.

 _Arrogant little brat,_ Zuko thought fondly

"You," Zuko said pointing at Aang, "go ahead and use your airbending. Maybe that will help you relax a bit, and let you get some power behind your strikes. You," he turned to Kiyi, his glare matching hers even as the corner of his mouth quirked up in a sardonic smile, "are just upset because you don't already _know_ everything. Strength is born from conflict, and you have lived your whole life without it!"

"Uh… well… that's not actually the case," Aang began. "The Guru Laghima said-"

"Shut it, Aang! Fifty hot-squats! Now! Focus on your breathing!"

Zuko had already had a conversation with Aang about not trying to teach his sister his "nonsensical" philosophy until she was older, if at all. The younger man, always the peacekeeper, had agreed, and so now he only grumbled and began to do squats as Kiyi and Zuko continued bickering.

Dinners were sedate affairs. Aang and Kiyi were both too exhausted from Zuko's training to do much more than make polite conversation. Also, after that first meal, Zuko was always sure to sit _between_ the two of them, much to Kiyi's irritation and Ursa's continuing amusement.

 _I must NOT kill the Avatar. My sister is a tiny brat who is most likely only flirting with him to ANNOY me at this point. I must not kill the Avatar._

After dinner, Aang and Kiyi would normally collapse into their rooms and fall sound asleep until the next dawn. Which left Zuko nothing to do except continue to study the pictograms of the Sun-Warriors.

And spar with his mother.

Ursa had not been a bender, a fact which even Zuko had known was unusual for someone who married into the royal family. Given that fact, and the fact that her inability to bend had excluded her from her family's traditional profession as shugenja, she had taken another path.

She had instead become a sword-master.

And, if Zuko was any judge, she had only become better since his childhood.

She was eminently graceful in her style, despite wielding the tremendously long two-handed nodachi. It flitted in and out of Zuko's guard with the ease of a viper-eel snapping up kabuki-fish, and it was all Zuko could do to defend himself and he became increasingly certain that she might now even be a match for Lord Ikoma Piandao, the Fire-Nation's only currently living kensai.

Before his uncle had returned from Ba Sing Se it had been Ursa that insisted the Zuko learn the sword, and not just the minimum that tradition required, but full martial training. She had seen to both his and Azula's more comprehensive training during that intermediate period before Azulon's death. It was because of her that Zuko knew the sword, the bow, could swim, play the taiko drum, write and analyze poetry (no matter how unwillingly), and, most embarrassingly, that he had any knowledge of the art of ikebana, flower arranging.

She was eminently practical and had undoubtedly taught Kiyi these things too, as well as continuing her own martial training.

After a long time spent sparring, long after the Sun had disappeared, Ursa would offer brief polite commentary on his sword form, never outright disparaging but often cutting regardless. Then with a bow she would bid him good night and, more and more emphatically over the course of Zuko's stay, bid _him_ to go to bed as well.

Zuko never did.

He instead just bent, fire rolling around him as he practiced the new forms he had learned, over and over, hammering the lesson home, building muscle memory, plotting the next day's training. Every time he bent now it gave him the same heady sense of power and _rightness_ that he had felt the first time he had ever bent. Feelings he now associated with having an army at his back as he charged the breach, the roar of a crowd welcoming him home, and the entirely new sensation that, _perhaps,_ he had not failed _every_ person he had ever loved.

His ancestors were with him, their song made manifest in roaring red flames as he moved through form after form.

His normal unconscious scowl fell away as he bent, replaced by a fearsome, almost exultant, grin that, had anyone been around to see it, would have most likely sent them running for the hills.

He was still Akodo Zuko after all.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

As is the nature of all things, especially good things, it had to come to an end eventually.

Zuko and Aang spent almost the entirety of their next to last day making detailed sketches of the walls in the High Temple so that they could continue to practice the new forms and modified stances. Zuko was certain that if they stayed any longer that he might not want to leave. There was simply so much to learn, about firebending, about the segment of his family that he'd never thought to have.

Also, if they stayed much longer, he was certain that Katara would probably show up and impale him with several hundred ice spears.

At _least_ one hundred.

"Zuko, where is your sister?" Ursa said as the two men finished repacking their supplies on Appa.

Zuko paused in his ascent up the bison, his eye narrowing.

"Oh, she told me that she didn't need to say goodbye because she was sure that we would meet again soon!" Aang said from his seat on Appa's head.

Zuko rolled his eye and finished climbing up Appa, glancing suspiciously at their luggage.

 _Oh look, a Kiyi sized basket that we DIDN'T bring with us,_ he thought sarcastically.

"What's in the BASKET, Aang?" Zuko said loudly. The basket in question shook slightly as though it had been startled.

"Hmmm? Oh! Kiyi gave it to me, and we gathered some fruits to bring back with us! This place is really verdant," Aang said genuinely, his face innocent, completely devoid of wrongdoing.

Zuko opened the basket and took in a mass of papaya.

"They're Katara's favorite!" Aang said happily.

 _Katara HATES papaya,_ Zuko thought idly. Then he reached beyond the first layer of fruit and pulled out his now scowling sister.

"No," he growled at her.

"Yes," she growled back, her tiny mirror of his scowl still in place.

"You are flaming well NOT-"

"Language," Ursa called up to him.

Zuko sighed heavily, his shoulders slumping. "You are not coming, Kiyi." Still holding her up by the scruff of her neck he began to carry her off Appa.

"This is so unfair!" she squawked, punching and kicking to no effect. "Why do _you_ get to go off and have adventures while I'm stuck _here_."

"Kiyi…"

"NO! I won't! I don't want to spend the rest of my life here on this stupid island!" she shouted as Zuko lept to the ground.

"Kiyi, it's safer for you here," Ursa said as Zuko hauled his still struggling sister over to her.

"I don't want _safe!_ I want adventure!"

"I am not going to have an adventure, Kiyi. I'm going to fight a war," Zuko said patiently.

"Then let me come WITH you! I can help! I can-"

"You _are_ helping," Zuko said dropping to one knee so that he could look her in the face.

She cut off and stared at him in a suspicious questioning manner.

"Kiyi, I promise you, one way or the other, you are going to leave this island very soon."

"Zuko…?" Ursa said questioningly.

"If the Av- If _Aang_ and I fail in our mission it will be up to _you_ , you understand? You will be the only one left to stop our father. _You_ will have to be the one who saves the world and I believe you can. You cannot imagine how much better I feel knowing that you are alive, here, waiting to save the world should I fall."

Moisture began to fill Kiyi's eyes.

"And if, the Sun willing, we succeed you will leave this place, you will come HOME, you BOTH will."

"Zuko… I was banished," Ursa said softly, sadly. "I was _justly_ banished. I-"

"You will be unbanished," Zuko snapped, " _I_ will be the Fire-Lord, and anyone who has a problem with it… well, it will be the last problem they have in _this_ life. You WILL come home. I need you, and Azula, spirits willing, will need you too."

Now Ursa's eyes filled with moisture as well, and she glided forward sinking to her knees and gathering her children in an embrace.

Zuko had been taught, by this woman no less, that familial displays of affection were only acceptable in extrema or in private. He felt that, despite Aang's presence, this maybe qualified and so he closed his eye and leaned into the hug.

 _If for no other reason I will take that throne,_ Zuko thought. _I'll flaming well do it for these two._

"This is nice," Aang said. Zuko's eye popped open and found that he had somehow inserted himself into the hug, squeezed between Kiyi and his mother. "I _told_ you, Hotman, an optimistic attitude, and _hugs_ , are the best way towards spiritual enlighten-"

"I AM GOING TO PEEL THE SKIN FROM YOUR FLAMING _BONES_!" Zuko roared.

"Language," Kiyi and Ursa said together.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"Well, _that_ was interesting," Aang said, holding a damp rag to his bloody nose as Zuko piloted them away from the island.

"I am… sorry… about that," Zuko said, looking at his hands in shame. "I am… a bit overprotective of my sister…s." His face darkened slightly. "Though I am not in a position to ask it of you, I would ask that you refrain from telling anyone about her. It would be best, safest, if her existence was as secret as possible."

"Of course," Aang said thickly, if somehow still happily through his damp cloth. "And, apology accepted!" he continued. He removed the cloth from his nose, ascertaining that the flow of blood had stopped and revealing the very beginnings of the black eye that he was sure to have.

 _Katara is going to kill me,_ Zuko thought in resignation.

"It is interesting to me though," Aang said, now with a more pensive look. "I really don't get the whole 'protective sibling' thing. I mean, I know that _Sokka_ is like that; any time anybody even _looks_ at Katara funny he gets all protective." He sighed, now sounding almost bitter. "Sometimes I wish I knew what that was like."

"I… have also wondered what it must be like to have no family," Zuko said solemnly. "For my people, family has always been very important. Who your family is, what they have done, it is intrinsic to our own personal identity. A large part of the reason I must fight is to stop my father from bringing shame upon my entire line. Many of the people who will join my… _our_ side in this war do so because the Fire-Lord endangers their families."

"Honestly, until I met Sokka and Katara, I never felt the lack," Aang said perking up a bit. "The whole _temple_ was family. We all cared for one another, and helped one another, and we all loved one another. It was great!"

Zuko pondered this for a moment, mulling over what he thought was the obvious logistical problem. "Were… all the female monks like your sisters then? That seems… problematic."

"Hmm? Oh, the Nuns? No, not really. But then we only saw them once a year."

"…What?"

"Yeah, they would come for a few weeks at the vernal equinox, and then all the men over eighteen would go and do the sex with them." Aang said it offhandedly, as though he was mentioning that they all had water to drink with their meals.

"…WHAT?"

"It was called the ritual of renewal, and it was very spiritual."

"All… all at the same time?" Zuko said, his eye wide in shock.

"Dunno," Aang said uninterestedly. "I never got to go to one."

" _That_ is very strange," Zuko said bluntly.

"Spiritual," Aang said repressively.

" _No._ Just _strange._ "

"It was a healthy and enlightened way to go about ensuring the continuation of my people."

"If you think you are going to drag MY… drag _anyone_ off to some spirits damned _orgy_ I am going to tear you apart," Zuko growled.

"I'm not dragging anyone anywhere," Aang said growing annoyed. "I'm not even eighteen yet!"

Zuko snorted and remained silent for a moment. "Tell me more," he said sounding, in spite of his words, like he would rather have his fingernails pulled out one at a time.

"Really? Ok… so while I never went to one, I was given to understand that there were a bunch of oils that were used to-"

"Not about THAT!" Zuko thundered. "Just… about… Air-Nomad stuff. OTHER Air-Nomad stuff."

"Why?" Aang said, cocking his head to the side in curiosity.

"Because… all I've ever had to go on are half-baked legends and a few scraps from Avatar Yangchen and Guru Laghima. Nothing else survived." He growled. " _Sozin_ was nothing if not thorough." He looked at Aang and gave him a nod. "Tell me of your people that we might come to an understanding. Understanding is-"

"-the way to enlightenment," Aang finished happily.

 _This is going to be difficult,_ Zuko thought, pinching the bridge of his nose. _But he basically just gave me back my mother, and magic-ed up a sister I had never expected to have. An effort will have to be made._

"Close enough," he said aloud.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Appa had not touched down on the stones of the Western Air Temple for even a minute before Katara was there, grey-blue eyes glaring.

Zuko's boots were not on the ground for more than a heartbeat before she invaded his personal space.

"I SWEAR if you EVER do that again, I will personally…" she trailed off as Aang appeared in her field of vision, floating down from Appa.

"Aang? What _happened_ to your face?" she said her voice going deadly with calm.

 _Well, this is it. I learn the secrets of firebending, discover a new family member only to come back here and be tragically slain by my ex-girl-_

"Firebending training is really tiring!" Aang said sincerely. "I got so tired I actually fell over, a _bunch."_

 _Ash and bone, did he just… lie for me?_

"Well… fine," Katara continued, she bent water into a glove around her hand and pressed it to Aang's now mostly faded black eye. Then she resumed her glare at Zuko. "But I have decided that you are NOT allowed to monopolize Appa for that long EVER again. What if the _other_ firebending scum find us? We need to have a method of escape."

Zuko, whose eye was still locked on the ground, and already knew that discretion was the better part of valor, simply nodded in acquiescence.

"Furthermore," Katara continued, whipping her water back into her waterskin with an idle flick, "I think it should be apparent that if you are taking Aang-"

"Oh wow, Katara!" Aang said cutting her off. "Just wait until you see all the firebending moves I learned. It's so much cooler than when Jeong-Jeong tried to teach me! You can even…" his face brightened even further, something that should have been physically impossible. "Ooh! Ooh! Hotman! You've got to show them the dance!"

"Aang, we should really unpack fi-"

"Ooh, Katara, it's so cool," Aang continued over top of him, bouncing on his toes, still incredibly excited. "There's this firebending dance, the 'Ryu no Odori' they had on one of the walls. Show them, Hotman-sensei!"

Zuko rolled his eye. "We have better things to do than-"

"Oh _no_ ," Toph said, having strolled over with Sokka and the Duke to see what all the commotion was about, a wide evil grin on her face. "I think now is the _perfect_ fucking time for you to show us whatever cute little _dance_ you've learned, Sparky."

"Yeah," Sokka said with a snort. "Dance for us, _Sparky_."

"Aang, we have talked about this," Zuko said, clamping down on the wave of irritation he normally felt whenever Katara's idiot brother spoke in his presence. "Ryu no Odori is an _artistic_ piece, and not at all what you need to be focusing on if you want to be ready to-"

"But _you_ said it required a master's level of _control,_ " Aang said, now grinning as mischievously as Toph. "I thought that _control_ was supposed to be important? Besides," and here his smile became less mischievous and more genuine, "it was _really_ cool."

"… If I do this thing, you will begin training? Immediately?" Zuko asked.

Aang nodded emphatically, still grinning hugely.

Zuko sighed in exasperation. Then he rolled his neck in a circle and strode away from Appa and into a clear space. He shrugged downward, summoning a ring of fire at his feet, generating the initial flames that he would need for the "dance."

It _had_ been an interesting set piece, not at all useful in a combat scenario, but honestly, most of the Sun-Warriors sequences had been like that. More performance pieces intended to pay homage to Holy Sun than practical fighting techniques. The kata _did_ take a lot of control, however, and Zuko supposed that that alone might make it useful to practice.

Which didn't mean he wanted to be doing it in front of an audience.

The red ring of flames at his feet uncoiled from itself as Zuko took a wide stance, one end lifting off the ground. Gradually, as Zuko had not yet mastered the form, the fire began to take on the form of a giant horned serpent's head. As he moved through the flowing patterns of the kata chain the winged serpent became more and more distinct as it wound through the air. It relied, Zuko had found, on a lot of his righteous anger, stiff staccato motions, as well as some more subtle tingings of other emotions as well. There was a hint of joy in its wings, the joy of flight in Zuko's high kicks. There was pride in its eyes, the pride of a job well done, made manifest in subtle flourishes with the wrists and ankles. There was even a hint of the mirth Zuko had felt at his uncle's, usually terrible, jokes. Mirth in the way the dragon's now huge form roiled in the air above his head.

And then there was another emotion at the end of the sequence… one that Zuko was trying very hard to deal with.

Zuko, for only the briefest of moments, allowed himself to look at Katara, the woman he loved.

And with a deafening BOOM, the dragon roared, thunder flying out from its mouth, ending the sequence.

Zuko exhaled, releasing the bend, allowing the fire to dissipate, and noted, not unhappily that everyone, barring Aang and Toph, had their mouths open in wonder.

"See? Told you!" Aang said happily.

"Well, it _sounded_ cool," Toph said, sounding less impressed. "And your footwork was balanced throughout so… that's cool… I guess."

"Fair enough," Zuko said. "You," he pointed at Aang, "your stamina is still unacceptable. You will now sprint to the top of this temple and back here twenty times."

Aang grinned.

" _Without_ airbending," Zuko said, now with a grin of his own.

Aang drooped.

"I will stay here and unload Appa. After you are done, we will see how well you have reflected on the 'Roaring Inferno' stance, as you _said_ you would, during our return trip."

Aang gulped and, much slower than he would have with his airbending, began to jog towards the nearest staircase.

"I said SPRINT!" Zuko roared. "And remember your-"

"My BREATHING! Yes, I know!" Aang called back, picking up his pace.

Once he was out of sight, Zuko nodded and turned back to Appa.

And found a still glaring Katara in front of him.

Attempting to not look at her any more than was necessary, Zuko took a step to the side and moved on to Appa, his eye once again on the ground.

"You will not do that again," she said quietly from behind him. "You can't just disappear for _weeks_ without telling me… without giving me some way of finding… Aang."

Zuko, without turning, nodded silently.

"Aang is the last hope this world has for peace," Katara continued, her voice beginning to rise in volume and venom. "I will NOT allow him to be taken by you, again. I will not allow you to twist him into another murderous, lying, piece of-"

"Oh, lay off him, Sweetness," Toph snapped, striding forward, her brows furrowed in irritation. "Come on, Sparky. I'll help you unpack."

That last, more than anything, seemed to shock Katara into silence, and after a moment of goggling at Toph, she stormed away in highest dudgeon.

"Not to seem ungrateful but, how exactly are you going to help?" Zuko asked quietly, his eye, without his conscious permission, following Katara as she stormed away.

Toph's only response was to lean her back against Appa's flank and stomp her foot, creating a set of stairs from the ground to Appa's saddle.

"Ah. My thanks," Zuko said, bowing slightly.

 **A/N:** **Ladies and Gentlemen! Fans of fics both oscillating and not! Welcome to the end of my version of "The Firebending Masters," and thus the author notes!**

 **So… what did you think?**

 **No, seriously, tell me what you thought. This is one of my MAJOR departments from canon and I well… I just hope it works, in an entertainment and narrative sense. But if NOT, and I have offended you somehow by inserting characters that only really appeared in the comics, well… I'd like to hear about that too.**

 **Either way, it is what it is, and it do be like it do. And of course, so do…  
**

 **.**

 **THE META BITS**

 **.**

 **Luke Skywalker:** **Let's talk about Aang for a minute (not that I didn't just write 10000 words about him or anything.) What sort of a person is Aang? He is a monk, he is cheerful, he is forgiving, he is (at the beginning of the series at least) a fish-out-of-water and a stranger in a strange land. He is, canonically speaking, the protagonist of the story. Hell, even I, in deference to that fact, named this fic after him. He IS the Last Dragon. The Last of his people (I have no intent to go the hidden air-nomad route in this fic.) He has a** _ **destiny.**_ **And yet, despite all of that, he is willing to, after very little prompting, go off with Zuko to spirits alone knows where. This would normally speak to me of a colossal amount of arrogance, but I never really get that sense here. He has always been, to me, very much like a Jedi (and again at my heart as you may have noticed I am a huge star wars nerd.) Which is why this opening scene draws the parallel between Aang and Luke Skywalker. It just works for me; younger man, seeking adventure, afraid of his responsibilities, meets an old slightly crazy dude, gets half-trained, but then runs off cause his friends are in danger.  
**

 **SO, there's that.**

 **.**

 **A dearth of dragons:** **Now on to the changes from the show. I found the, almost mezzo-american styles of the Sun-Warriors to be a bit… odd. The show had done a pretty good job of giving most of the cultures their own theme. The EK is china, the WTs are the Inuit, the AN were Tibetian Buddhists, and the FN (in deference to not making one SINGLE culture into the badguys I think) seemed to be a mash up of Japan and India. And then we find out that the ancient antecedents of the FN are the Mayans and Aztecs? With chinese style dragons? …Meh. So, I have changed it. Because I can. Now expect that the ruins on the heavily forested isle of the sun (Taiyoshima) are more FN-y, more pagodas and the like. Also, I have tried to emphasize just HOW overgrown the place was. It made no sense that Aang and Zuko just strolled along these wide-open causeways towards the center of the island. They would have just frigging flown. They have a flying bison!**

 **.**

 **Ginang-Araw Nisiko:** **So, here's the headcanon for me in this AU. Akodo and the nascent FN are fighting here, their "style," such as it was, was literally just throwing fire at one another for a bit and then charging, avec naginata and katana. Akodo himself might have been something closer to "normal" firebending but not anywhere** _ **near**_ **the level of a modern firebender. So then he invades Taiyoshima, and despite the fact that they are** _ **grossly**_ **outnumbered, the Sun-Warriors hold their own. And then future Mrs. Akodo shows up. I imagine that she is loud, bossy, and probably the daughter of the High-Priest and/or Chieftain, if not the leader in her own right. She and Akodo fight and sparks, both literal and figurative fly. One thing leads to another and she eventually says "Yes, I will marry you, but here's the thing…" Akodo, in an attempt to maintain his 1.000 batting record just swears his whole legion to secrecy and then tells everyone else that the island is cursed. This is a sort of wedding present to his fiancé whose people really just want to be left alone to worship the Sun. But Nisiko teaches Akodo firebending and converts him, and most of the FN to the veneration of the Sun.  
**

 **What happened to the Sun-Warriors? No Idea.**

 **Also, her family name is Filipino (at least according to google translate) for Sun Lady, and is my shout out to good ol' dante brasko. Which also leads me to…**

 **.**

 **Excuse my Japanese:** **I am NOT a Japanese speaker. I rely entirely on Google translate, and the variety of TV shows that include some Japanese in them. If I have made an error in translation please, please, PLEASE tell me so. Thank you and now back to the rest of the A/N.**

 **.**

 **Ursa and Kiyi:** **I have not read the comics. I have seen a great many of their various panels here and there around the internet, but I do not own them, and have never sat down and read them, and, if we're being honest here, based on what I've heard of them I'm not missing much. As always YMMV. So, obviously, changes from what I understand the comics story to be.**

 **Ursa was not a peasant forced into a marriage by the Fire-Lord because "prophecy." Ursa was a bad ass, mega-classy lady, who met, and fell in love with, one Akodo Ozai. I am not going to play the Ozai, born in the dead of night under a bad sign and all the cows in the village dropped dead at his first cry, card here. He was a standard, albeit Royal, guy, who most likely took one look at Ursa and said… "wow." So he pursued, and was pursued. I actually imagine their courtship was rather romantic. "A non-bender courting a Prince?" "The SCANDAL!" And so on.**

 **But as these things sometimes do, the marriage cooled off. Ozai and Ursa became very focused on their jobs, two kids to raise, we never just** _ **talk**_ **anymore, etcetera, etcetera.**

 **Then Ozai makes a power play and Azulon (who I imagine is half-mad with grief himself at this point but is holding it in, in true magnificent bastard style) lashes out. Again, because for some reason I can't help but** _ **like**_ **Azulon, (anyone who builds a large flaming wall of chains and statues is kinda cool) I think that it was a** _ **test**_ **for Ozai. Either he kills his son, and then Azulon has cause to remove him from play entirely, thus letting him name Azula his heir after Iroh, OR Ozai refuses out of love for his son, and then, Azulon knows that he's seen the error of his ways and can actually** _ **consider**_ **making him crown prince.**

 **He never sees** _ **Ursa**_ **coming.**

 **.**

 **The scarring:** **Yes, exactly what Zuko was thinking. His mother had to beg to save his life, which Ozai would have found the height of weakness. But, he still loved her. So he went along with the super-double-secret-treasonous plan, and THEN let her leave. SO he hates himself. He hates that he fucked up so badly that, although he got what he desperately wanted (the throne), he had to give up the love of his life to do it. He, in his heart of hearts, KNOWS he fucked up. But then four years after his wife is banished his son shows the same "weakness." The weakness he has tried so very hard to purge from himself, and his children. And so he LOOSES his shit. Yes, full on demonic crazy evil. This is not an excuse for his behavior, I think that he basically** _ **invited**_ **that thing. But it is the initial spark that makes him want to mutilate his own son.**

 **So… there's THAT.**

 **.**

 **The true meaning of** **Christmas err... I mean** **Firebending:** **This is my reconciliation with all the other emotional nonsense that I have skipped over in previous chapters. Firebending is** _ **emotion**_ **bending. I think that anger would have been the most useful in a combat scenario, and so all the other styles, and knowledge thereof, would have sort of drifted into obscurity over the last 10000 years. But NOW Zuko knows the truth, and that, along with the return of his mother, is going to resolve** _ **his**_ **inner conflict with his own fire bending.**

 **That being said, I have always held the opinion that denying anger is pointless, you have to feel what you have to feel, you just can't let it control you. Zuko is still angry, and rightly so, but now he can learn to separate that anger into its purest form, to direct it EXACTLY where it needs to go.  
**

 **He has learned CONTROL.**

 **So that's nice.**

 **.**

 **That's the POWER of LOVE:** **(/presses play on cassette deck, Huey Lewis and the News begins playing) Yes people, in case it wasn't clear, thunderbending is LOVE. All the loves, family, friendship, romantic. It's a direct opposing parallel to lightning which (again with the star wars) I see as concentrated hate. Something something balance, something something I regret nothing.**

 **.**

 **A word on chapter length:** **So… this chapter was REALLY long. I hope you enjoyed that. The next one is quite wordy too, but I'd like to say, here and now that I'm not going to be making a habit of it. I just break the chapters where they need to. If you get ten thousand words, you get ten thousand words, if you get six thousand… well, I'm sorry. Sometimes chapters can only be so long. Either way, I hope you enjoy every word.  
**

 **I know I do!**

 **Especially the comments/reviews section (winkwink nudgenudge)**

 **Thanks again for reading and have a good week!**

 **.**

 **.**

 **NEXT WEEK on a very special "Avatar: The Last Dragon"...**

 **Zuko makes a mistake and then there are more thrilling heroics than you can shake a boomerang at!**

 **TUNE IN. Same Zuko time, Same Zuko channel!**

 **Original post date: 27 January 2019**


	10. The Boiling Rock

**A/N: The Following is Rated MB; for Male Bonding.**

 **It contains dialog, where appropriate, from S3E14 &15 of the same name.**

 **Reader discretion is advised**

* * *

Chapter 10 "The Boiling Rock"

* * *

 **Late Spring, year 12 in the reign of Fire-Lord Ozai**

"Hey, can I talk to you for a moment?"

It had been a few weeks since Aang and Zuko had returned from the island of Taiyoshima, and directly after that return Aang had insisted that it was "just plain silly" for Zuko to have to build his own campfire and be all _alone_ when he could sit with the rest of the group and "have so much fun." Zuko who, unlike the Avatar, knew that Katara was still only a hair's breadth away from staking him out for the raven-hawks, protested that it "wasn't necessary."

Aang insisted, Zuko prevaricated.

Aang wheedled, Zuko scowled.

Aang, through dint of being both annoying and persistent, won.

It seemed to be his best and most successful tactic.

Katara had of course been furious, and insisted frequently, and at great volume, that she did not feed "traitors and scum." So, now Zuko simply sat with the group, waiting in awkward silence, until they had finished eating and put all their cookware away before he began to boil his own meager rice.

Before he had left, he had traded some of his good Fire-Nation long-grain rice in equal measure for his mother's stock of wild brown which he would cook over the now abandoned campfire. Its different texture now had an exceptionally pleasant emotional context for him.

Eating it almost made him _smile_.

Smiling had always been difficult for Zuko. He could sneer, grin, snarl, leer, or smirk with the best of them, but smiling was _different_. Smiling was a "happiness" thing and, for the most part, Zuko didn't _do_ happy.

Katara had made him happy, happier than he'd ever thought possible. He had managed to smile for her for the brief time that they had had together.

His sisters, both of them, had managed to make him smile as well. Their ferocity and wit made him both happy and amused.

His mother, and the powerful wave of nostalgia she inspired, along with the new remarkable sensation of relief from a guilt that had settled itself deep in his bones, made him smile almost uncontrollably.

But now, sitting alone by a nearly abandoned campfire, deep in contemplation of these emotions, and how they could be used in his and Aang's firebending, he could _almost_ smile.

It was a dramatic improvement for him.

But it was in that intermediate period, after the main group's dinner but before Zuko's, that Sokka approached and asked him his question. The two of them walked off to the edge of the firelight, observed by no one but the Duke.

"If someone was captured by the Fire-Nation, where would they be taken?" Sokka asked quietly.

"It depends," Zuko said, folding his arms over his chest. "Who was captured?"

"When… my invasion plan failed, some of our troops were taken. I just want to know where they might be."

" _Your_ invasion plan?" Zuko said with a snort. "I should have known. Only _you_ would be the appropriate combination of audacious and _stupid_ to do something like that."

"Hey! It would have worked if…"

"If?"

"If your _sister_ wasn't such a conniving bitch."

Zuko had Sokka by the throat, a snarl of rage bursting from his lips, before he even realized he had moved. He took a deep breath, and loosened his fingers, reasserting control.

"Sorry," he muttered, eye on the ground.

"It's ok," Sokka said straightening his tunic and glancing around to see if anyone had seen. He missed the Duke, who's tiny form was hidden directly behind Zuko. "I get it, it's _family_ , right?"

Zuko nodded sheepishly.

"That's why I'm asking. It's my dad. He was captured, and I need to know what I put him through."

Zuko grunted in acknowledgement and thought for a moment. "Though they should have been offered the opportunity to commit seppuku…" Sokka shook his head in negation as the Unicorn didn't practice seppuku except in the most extreme of circumstances. "Generally speaking, common ji-samurai will be taken to the western mountains. To the prison of Shadow Keep."

"Ok. Sure. But my dad's the _Chief_ so…"

Zuko blinked. "The _Chief?_ The Chief of what?"

"…The Southern Water-Tribe."

"The… the _whole_ tribe?"

"Uh… yes?"

"Your _father_ …"

"Shinjo Hakoda."

"…Shinjo Hakoda is _the_ Chieftain of the Unicorn of the Water-Tribes?"

"Uh, yeah?"

"So… he's _the_ Lord Shinjo?"

"Well, we don't do _Lords_ in the Unicorn," Sokka said dismissively.

"Is he the head of your family? Your _extended_ family?"

"Not much of a family left really. Just me, him and Katara. My uncle Bato is a Moto and his mom, my Gran-Gran, is a Daidoji _turned_ Moto."

"…I'm sorry?"

"My mom's mom, she was a Crane, but she ran away and married my Gramp-Gramp, who was a Moto. Oh, and he was a Chief too, before my dad."

"Moto… _Chagatai?_ " Zuko breathed.

"Yeah, that was his name, I think. He died before I was born though. Some big battle." Sokka shrugged.

"Water's Fall," Zuko said hoarsely, his lone eye wide. "The battle of Water's Fall."

 _Ash and bone… so THAT'S where Katara gets it from,_ Zuko thought, stunned. Moto Chagatai's temper, and waterbending skills, had been legendary even in the Fire-Nation. It had taken the combined strength of Fire-Lord Azulon _and_ the twenty-year-old Crown-Prince who would earn the name "Dragon of the West" afterwards to bring him down, and the Fire-Nation herald-poets of the Ikoma family had been all too quick to memorialize the moment with their usual rousing prose.

Zuko was at a loss.

"You mean to tell me," Zuko began, grabbing Sokka by the shoulders and shaking him slightly, "that your _mother_ was descended from the Daidoji Iron Warriors of the North, and the last great _Warchief_ of the Unicorn, while your _father_ is the head of the family of the _royal_ line of Shinjo?!"

Much like Akodo in the Fire-Nation, Shinjo had been the founder of the Unicorn Dojo and the Southern Water-Tribe. And, like Bayushi, her sister, Doji, had founded the Crane and the Northern Water-Tribe instead.

 _Of all the people to discover the Avatar._

"We don't do _royalty_ either," Sokka said, rolling his eyes.

"…You're a flaming _Prince_ ," Zuko said wonderingly.

… _and_ Katara _is a Princess,_ a long silent sighing voice whispered.

"We don't do… a _Prince_ , huh?" Sokka said suddenly looking intrigued.

"Your father will not be at Shadow Keep," Zuko said taking a step back and giving Sokka a nod. "Foreign nobility and bending samurai from the Fire-Nation are taken to the Boiling Rock."

"That… actually sounds worse."

"It is. It's the highest security prison in the Fire-Nation. It's on an island in the middle of a boiling lake. It's inescapable."

"Soooo… where _is_ the place?"

"Why do you need to know? What idiocy are you planning?" Zuko said, eye narrowing.

"Uh… nothing," Sokka said, obviously lying.

Zuko glared at him.

"Ok, fine. I'm going to go rescue my dad."

"…What part of the word 'inescapable' is unclear to you?"

"Look, I _have_ to do this, OK?" Sokka said, that painfully familiar look of shame and guilt on his face. "The invasion plan was _my_ idea and it was _my_ decision to stay when things were going wrong. It was _my_ mistake, and it's _my_ job to fix it." He sighed. "I have to regain my honor."

Zuko blinked, then grunted approvingly. Honor _was_ the important thing here.

"Excellent," Zuko said with a nod. "When are we leaving?"

"Wha- 'we?' No, that's not-" Sokka made a variety of waving negating motions as he spoke- "I have to do this alone… because… _honor?_ "

"Don't be an idiot," Zuko said with a snort. "You're going to storm the highest security prison in the Fire-Nation, the location of which you do not yet know, _alone_? Don't be stupid."

"I can't ask this of anyone else. It was my fault and-"

"You are not _asking_ because I am _telling_ you, I am going. I came here for allies, and the Chieftain of the Unicorn fits that description. Besides," Zuko shrugged, " _honor_. We can go tonight if you l-" Zuko cut himself off as he turned around and discovered the Duke standing silently behind him.

They stared at each other for a beat.

"Listen, boy, while you have admirable stealth, it is considered somewhat rude to just keep popping…" Zuko trailed off as the Duke turned around and trotted away.

"Do you think he's going to tell Katara?" Sokka said nervously.

 _Oh, wouldn't THAT just be fan-fucking-tastic._

"I don't know," Zuko said aloud. "We may want to leave quickly, just in case. We will take my war-balloon."

The two of them set off to gather their supplies from their rooms.

"Why don't we just take Appa?" Sokka said as they walked along hurriedly.

"Because the last time I took Appa anywhere, Katara nearly peeled me like a Dragon-Berry. You remember? I am not to 'monopolize' everyone's only means of escape should the _other_ 'firebending scum' discover us."

"Didn't you go with Aang? I mean, it's _his_ bison."

"Do you think she _cared_?"

"She _is_ being really weird about this… whole situation. She _really_ doesn't like you."

"I am not very likable," Zuko said flatly.

They both reached their rooms and quickly grabbed a minimum of supplies that they felt they might require for a stealthy infiltration mission. That accomplished, Sokka scrawled a note indicating that they were _actually_ just going to go fishing, no matter _what_ the Duke said. Zuko added a small, and far more legible, addendum concerning the forms and exercises that Aang was to practice in his absence.

Only Appa, and the still silent the Duke, saw them rise into the night sky and depart.

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"Sooooo," Sokka said, gazing around at the open sky as the next morning dawned.

"So?" Zuko said.

"It's a long flight… to this prison?"

"Several days. Yes."

"Sooooo… what do you want to talk about?"

"I don't."

"Oh, come ON!" Sokka shouted, making the war-balloon's basket sway slightly. "You can't just sit there and _meditate_ the whole time. What am _I_ supposed to do?"

"Whatever you would like."

"I'd like to TALK."

"Then do so. Just don't expect me to participate."

"You're soooo boring."

"And _you_ are very irritating."

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"Pretty clouds, huh?"

"Uh… yeah… _fluffy_."

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"… and then she just vanished, you know? Poof. Most beautiful woman I'd ever seen, and she just sacrificed herself and disappeared."

"That's… rough," Zuko said honestly.

"Yeah…" Sokka sighed wistfully. "I just worry… Do you think it makes me a bad person for… you know, _liking_ , another girl after Yue?"

"No. I think she would most likely want you to be happy," Zuko said musingly. "And we were always taught that if the dead were _truly_ upset with us their displeasure would be obvious. Seeing as how… you said she is the _Moon_ now? I would imagine that she has ways of making her anger known."

"Yeah, I suppose," Sokka said, sighing wistfully… again. "What about you?"

"What _about_ me?"

"Anybody _special_ waiting for you back home?"

"No."

"What, not even that gloomy girl with all the knives?" Sokka crooned, waggling his eyebrows. "I thought the two of you were _betrothed_?"

"…how in the ash did you know that?"

"There were _posters,_ man! When we were in the Fire-Nation you couldn't go two _feet_ without somebody getting all weepy-eyed about the 'returned hero and his blushing bride-to-be.' Ugh, it was disgusting. And _Katara_ went off like a freezing _bomb_ every time she saw one."

"…did she?" Zuko said quietly.

"Yeah, really weird. I always thought she hated your sister and that cute acrobat chick more, but the way she stared at those posters and just _fumed_ , I guess she didn't like the knife-thrower either… She was kind of cute though, must have really sucked leaving her behind."

"Mai and I… we were never really engaged. We're just friends, and it was just politics."

"Wow, that sucks. So, you were cooped up with that grim spooky girl and couldn't even date anyone else? Tragic."

"Mai is one of my best friends and I would appreciate it if you didn't continually insult her."

Sokka shrugged in acceptance and looked back out the side of the basket for a long moment. "She _was_ pretty cute though."

"Oh, absolutely," Zuko said with a nod.

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"Asinine."

"No, just hear me out! The boomerang always comes _back,_ see?"

"Yes. Back to the same _spot._ Meaning that you must remain stationary and vulnerable to return fire if you wish to use it repeatedly. The daikyu has better range, accuracy, and, with the right ammunition, it is highly effective at armor penetration."

"Yes, but does the arrow come _back._ "

"…No. It doesn't."

"My point exactly."

"…Asinine."

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"We are _not_ talking about this," Zuko growled.

"Come ON. I told you about YUE for the spirits' sake! That's got to count for something! You OWE me."

"I did not _ask_ you to-"

"But it happened! AND you nearly killed my other girlfriend!"

"The battlefield is a dangerous place," Zuko snapped. "The Avatar would not have revealed himself if I had not-"

" _AND_ you broke my nose, TWICE!"

"You… shouldn't have been standing there," Zuko said feebly.

"Ok, ok, ok. _Look_ , we're bonding here. Having manly bonding time. You can either tell me about your scar OR the last woman you slept with… or both."

"We are NOT talking about-"

"In the Water-Tribes you have to _trust_ your allies. _Especially_ the ones you plan tofight alongside. How the frost are we supposed to do this if you don't trust me enough to talk about yourself?"

"…you are VERY irritating."

"Irritating in my _rightness_."

"I could have killed you at the South Pole you know!"

"I could have killed you at the _North_ Pole! We had you tied up on Appa for _HOURS_. Could have just 'slipped' and been all 'oh no! He fell on my boomerang! He fell on my boomerang like TWENTY times!' Would have been tragic."

"…we are NOT talking about this!"

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"No way!"

"Yes way. I had enough for both of them," Zuko said, grinning slightly as he held the "Earth-Rumble VI" commemorative cups aloft and then filled them, again, with the sake that Sokka had pulled from his bag. "I had means AND opportunity!"

"That is so awesome! I really wanted a "the Boulder" poster but Katara said-"

"That it was 'just a bunch of guys chucking rocks at each other?'"

"Yes! Exactly!" Sokka grinned, then looked at his cup questioningly. "I suppose I get you buying the 'Fire-Nation Man' cup, but… 'the Bandit?'"

"What the ash are you talking about? Toph was the best one there… by a LOT."

"Pffft. The Boulder was the cool one. He-"

"The _Boulder_ always referred to himself in the third person. You don't get much more lame than that."

"Your _face_ doesn't get much more lame than that!" Sokka retorted.

"You are completely nonsensical," Zuko said, mildly amused as he finished his cup.

"Frost with it! The _Sokka_ says we need another drink!"

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"And then… he burned half my face off," Zuko said quietly, dropping their fifth, now empty, sake bottle to the deck.

"… Holy SHIT."

"Yes."

"That… frostbitten motherfucker."

"Yes."

"… _that's_ rough."

"Are you happy now?"

"Are _you_?"

"I'm _never_ happy," Zuko said grimly, despite his intoxication. "Why was it so important for you to know?"

"Well… I don't know… I mean… I always wondered how you got it," Sokka said, a slight slur in his voice. "And bonding is IMPORTANT. Also, you're like the first guy my age in the group. I've been surrounded by all this lady energy for so long… Honestly, I figured you'd got a cool scar like that in a cool battle or something… cool, ya know?"

"The Ash are you talking about? The guy with the mustache is our age. And the one in the wheelchair can't be that far off."

"Haru and Teo? Yeah, I mean Teo's cool and all, real smart, but not very… _manly._ And _Haru…_ well… Haru's…"

"… Haru's what?"

"Let's just say that there's a LOT of lady energy."

"Oh, for the Sun's SAKE, Sokka!"

"Hey, I'm not judging, it's cool, it's cool. Just… you know… not very Manly."

"You are an idiot."

"Hey now, it's just kinda my thing, ya know? At least, I'd _like_ it to be. I'm Sokka; the meat and sarcasm guy. I'd _like_ to be Sokka; the meat, sarcasm, and _manliness_ guy."

" _Toph_ is more manly than you."

"Oh well, _that's_ just not fair."

"I suppose," Zuko said with a grin. "To be fair, Toph may be more manly than _me,_ and I'm a bearded, firebending, General-Prince, who used to date his former _arch-enemy_."

"Yeah, Toph is pretty awes-… wait… what?"

"…what?"

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"MY SISTER!?"

"Sokka…"

"NO! No no no no no no NO!"

"Sokka."

"This isn't happening. This is all a DREAM. A BAD dream. Worse than the one where food eats people!"

"Sokka!"

"We were _bonding_! It was _working!_ And now…"

"Ash and bone, Sokka."

"What?! WHY?! What?! How? WHY!?"

"It just… happened."

"No! Getting fishhooks stuck in your thumb is something that just 'happens.' Dating my… UGH! I can't even say it!"

"Stop acting like a child!"

"Your FACE is acting like a child! With my SISTER!"

Zuko rolled his eye.

"When!?" Sokka said thrusting his finger in Zuko's face.

"Sokka, you do not want to have this conversation with me."

"WHEN?! You frostbitten pile of-"

"Gaoling."

"Gao… Gaoling? But that was… Moon and Sea, that was over a year ago! How long were you two… ugggh."

"Off and on from Gaoling until… the fall of Ba Sing Se."

"Holy shit! That's why she was so pissed about those posters!"

"I don't know. She knows that Mai and I weren't involved romantically."

"Then why?"

"…What _happened_ at Ba Sing Se, Sokka?"

"… Oooooh."

"Yes. 'Oh.'"

"But if you two were dating why did you…"

"Exactly how was I supposed to pick between the woman I love and my _sister?_ " Zuko snapped.

"… _Love_?"

"Yes. Love. I LOVE your sister. I have for years."

"…Still?"

"Still."

"…Right!" Sokka said, lurching to his feet.

Then, unexpectedly, his fist collided with Zuko's face and the brawl that started shook the basket of the war-balloon dangerously.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"Oooh look! That one looks like a rhino-whale!" Sokka said taking a swig then passing the seventh sake bottle to Zuko.

"No. No, it does not." Zuko took a mouthful and passed the bottle back. "If anything, it looks like an Empire-Class Battlecruiser."

Drink. Pass. "…I'm not seeing it."

Drink. Pass. "Tilt your head to the left and squint your eye."

Drink. Pass. "Which eye?"

Drink… Zuko, his single yellow and now _blackened_ eye, glared at Sokka in the dim predawn light.

"Oh, right. Sorry."

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"Ash and bone, you trained with Lord Ikoma?"

"…Who?"

"Piandao. Ikoma Piandao. Lord of the Ikoma family."

"Oh yeah, it was awesome! He helped me make space-sword."

"That… that blade is a Piandao _original?_ " Zuko whispered, eye going wide. "As in… he, himself, made it?"

"Well… I helped."

"You got to WORK with Lord Ikoma!?"

"It wasn't that big a deal."

"Not that big a deal? Not that big a DEAL?! Are you _insane!_ That's a HUGE deal. Lord Ikoma… he's a KENSAI! A flaming Sword-Saint! He hasn't made a blade for anyone, or trained anyone, in _years!_ He just sits in his castle and _paints_. He doesn't even come to court functions anymore! He just lets Ty Lee's dad run everything!"

"Who?"

"Ty Lee?... the acrobat, the one in pink."

"Oh, right, scary-hot number two. Huh. That's cool."

"… scary-hot… number _two?"_ Zukohad a sinking feeling that he knew who "number one" would be.

"You _DON'T_ want to have this conversation with me," Sokka said grinning at him.

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"It just doesn't make sense!" Sokka exclaimed.

"To what specifically were you referring?" Zuko said as he stoked the fire that was keeping them aloft.

"You and my _sister_."

"… Why do you keep bringing this up?"

"'Cause it doesn't make any fucking SENSE to me! First of all, WHY would my sister, high-chieftainess of goodness and light, date the Prince of fucking DARKNESS."

"… Your metaphor needs wor-"

"Second!" Sokka shouted ignoring him, "When in the frozen hells did you find TIME for this? We hadn't seen you for months before Ba Sing Se."

"I was in Chin… on Avatar Day."

"… Of _COURSE_ you were! Probably a Royal Family tradition! Spit a few Avatars over the fire, gently baste, then serve over a bed of RICE!"

"Actually, Avatar Roku was my great-grandfather," Zuko said turning back to the boiler.

"…WHAT?!"

"My mother is Kitsu Roku's youngest grandchild. So, no, it is not a _family_ tradition."

"Putting… _that_ aside, why would my baby sister… ugh, I still can't say it. I think I'm gonna gag."

"I do not KNOW," Zuko snapped, slamming the boiler door in irritation. "I do not NOW, nor have I EVER, understood your flaming sister! SHE…" he slumped almost comically, "she confuses me."

Sokka stared at him, mouth agape. "Holy SHIT! You ARE in love with her!"

"Uh… yes? I did say that."

" _Why_?"

Zuko shrugged again. "Uh… well, she's… just… do we _really_ want to be talking about this?"

"It's like watching a canoe crash," Sokka said with a nod, a look of pensive horror on his face.

"She is just so… fierce. Never uncertain. For most of my life I have only _pretended_ at that kind of conviction and she just carries it with her like the water she bends."

"Yeah. Ok. I can see that. She's super bossy like that."

" _Commanding_ ," Zuko said repressively.

"Nah, she more just gets the wind in her sails and goes until she runs aground. Gets herself in trouble more times than not. It's super annoying."

"She has _conviction_ ," Zuko snapped.

" _Annoying,_ " Sokka said, eyeing him.

"Your FACE is annoying." Zuko's eye then bulged slightly in horror at his own accidental use of Sokka's stupid joke-rebuttal.

"HA!" Sokka crowed in triumph.

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"No. Absolutely not," Zuko growled.

"Absolutely yes! They're essential!" Sokka said smiling winningly.

"How are- No, nevermind. I am NOT calling you… ' _Meatmaster.'_ It just sounds… wrong."

"Code names are an integral part of any stealthy infiltration mission!"

"No. No, they are not."

"You are…" Sokka mused for a moment, " _Bossylover._ Because you apparently have a fetish for annoying bossy sisters."

"You are NOT calling me that!"

"AH! So you admit the fetish!"

"What?! NO! It just sounds stupid."

"Your _face_ sounds stupid!"

"That one didn't even make sense!"

"Your FACE doesn't make any sense!"

"I'll flaming well make YOUR face make no sense!" Zuko roared, a grin on his face.

After much bickering, and a slew of rejected names, the two of them settled on 'Hawk' for Sokka and 'Ghost' for Zuko.

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"Wake up," Zuko snapped, "we're here." He pointed in front of them at a rapidly approaching column of rising steam. "We'll do a flyover first, to get a general impression of the layout."

"Uhhhh… you _do_ know how these things work, right?" Sokka asked a note of concern in his voice.

"Prisons? Yes, I believe I have _some_ knowledge of the criminal justice system."

"Not the prison! The hot air balloon!"

"Uh… yes? I've flown us all the way here? Fire here makes the balloon go up. It also heats the boiler and makes the prop turn, propelling us f-"

"Do you know _why_ it goes up?"

"… the fire goes _here_ , and-"

"Heat rises! The balloon goes UP because it is hotter than the air around it!"

"Hm. Interesting. I fail to see what-"

"Is steam hotter or colder than the air around it?!" Sokka said his voice rising in panic.

Their vision, at that very moment, became obscured by the previously mentioned steam as they passed over the boiling lake below.

"Oh… Shit."

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The water was quite literally boiling.

Zuko had hoped that the name was merely a metaphor designed to reinforce the mystique of the Fire-Nation's most secure prison but, unfortunately, the Boiling Rock lived up to its hype.

It was only Zuko's time in the Fire-Nation navy that mitigated his previous error and saved both he and Sokka from a hot boil-y death. As the rapidly deflating balloon plummeted from the sky, he whipped the craft's rudder hard to port forcing the balloon's hull into a one-hundred-eighty-degree turn. Then, by calculating their previous momentum and pumping the boiler as though his life depended on it (which it, in fact, _did,_ ) he managed to dodge the gondola cable that was the only official entrance to the prison and to only skim the surface of the boiling lake, bringing them into a rough, but survivable, landing on the prison island itself.

After Zuko and Sokka finished a whispered shouting match, full of recriminations and blame, they extracted anything of use from the crash site and then pushed the ruined vessel into the lake so that it wouldn't be discovered.

It was fortunate for them that the main task of a prison guard was to ensure that no one got out, as opposed to preventing anyone from getting in.

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Zuko was annoyed.

And for the first time in several days, it wasn't Sokka's fault.

 _I should be grateful for this,_ he thought as he and Sokka skulked through the metal corridors of the prison's administrative complex.

And yet he was just annoyed.

 _This is the Boiling Rock. Mothers frighten their children to sleep with this place. It is SUPPOSED to be inescapable!_

He was becoming annoyed because, as he was discovering, "inescapable" was not the same thing as "impenetrable."

And, also, because Sokka, creeping along beside him with surprisingly decent stealth kept grinning his ash-eating grin at him and mouthing the word "inescapable," with varying degrees of facial ridiculousness, after finding almost every corridor they came upon either empty and unguarded.

The real kick in the teeth came when they found an equipment room, full of uniforms, weapons, and other prison sundry… unlocked and unguarded.

 _I swear, whoever is in charge here is getting fired!_ Zuko thought as he angrily threw on a guard uniform.

Guard uniforms that he soon discovered had face-concealing visors on their helmets, rendering all his ideas for disguising his scar unnecessary.

 _That's it. First order of business after I'm on the throne: No more face-concealing uniforms! To the pits with Scorpion tradition. You want to wear a mask to work? Go join a Noh theater troupe, NOT the penal system!  
_

Now no longer skulking, Sokka and Zuko strode boldly through the administrative sector, Sokka waving merrily to guards they passed, Zuko with his nose in a book of prison rules and regulations he had found in the equipment room.

As soon as they crossed into the prison proper, however, it was a different story.

The door back into the administrative wing had slammed behind them rather forcefully, and a quartet of guards, stationed two to either side of the door, stared at them suspiciously. One of them had stepped forward with the air of a man about to ask "what in the ash they thought they were doing," when the sound of a crashing alarm gong began to roll through the entire prison.

Zuko and Sokka were then swept up in a veritable flood of real guards who proceeded to rush into the prison yard to quell an altercation. Emulating their notional co-workers, the pair forced their way through a cheering crowd of prisoners in red ragged uniforms which had formed around the disturbance.

Zuko's eye widened as he took in the scene. A half a dozen prisoners lay on the ground, several with rather nastily broken bones, gasping in pain at the feet of a large bushy-bearded prisoner who sneered down at them in contempt.

It was Matsu Haki

 _What in the Ash?! He's supposed to be… damnit!_

"Isn't that…" Sokka began quietly.

Zuko simply nodded, staring, at the man who was _supposed_ to be gathering the massive personal armies of the Matsu clan under his banner.

"I have had just about _enough_ of your insubordinate attitude, prisoner!" one of the guards, a captain by the look of him, said pushing through the crowd and glaring at Haki.

Haki shrugged, his snarl changing to a roguish grin. "If you're trying to get me killed, you really should pick better tools, _coward_."

The guard-captain responded by snapping a fire-whip at Haki's face, which forced him to block reflexively with bending of his own.

"You know the rules, traitor," the guard-captain said, sounding rather pleased with himself, "no _firebending_ in the yard. Looks like you're heading back to the _table._ Say hello to the warden for me, will you?"

Surprisingly, Haki actually paled slightly at that.

"You," the guard snapped, pointing at Sokka, "help me take this one in."

"Meet me back here in an hour," Sokka muttered before shouting a confirmation at the guard.

Zuko nodded and, once again taking cues from the real guards, began chivvying prisoners away from the scene.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"So, new guy, huh?" a guard asked as Zuko entered the breakroom.

Zuko nodded.

"You _can_ take off your helmet in here you know. This is the _break_ room."

"Ah… but… what if there is an _incident?_ " Zuko asked, restraining nervousness. "I could be struck on the head. And I was sure that the regulations said-"

The rest of the guards on their breaks began laughing uproariously as Zuko fished out the book of regulations again and began thumbing through it.

"Look at the new guy!" "Reading the manual!" "Give it a week! He'll loosen up," the guards shouted in amusement.

Zuko began to bristle at being laughed at before remembering the gentle teasing that had gone on back when he had been in the regular army. This had the same tone to it, more a feeling of inclusion and comradery than of any actual mockery.

 _They are soldiers. I can DO soldierly._

"I don't suppose the new guy can ask some questions, can he?" Zuko asked quietly as he sat down at one of the tables.

"No. You can't date the female guards," one of the self-same female guards said wryly.

"Trust me, you don't want to," snorted one of the men at the table, and he was quickly rewarded for this comment with a half-full teacup to the face.

Zuko chuckled along with the rest of the room as the two of them rose to their feet and began shouting half-joking insults and threats at one another. After the room had settled back down Zuko continued.

"Actually, I was curious about the… uh… traitors?"

The room grew instantly still, all relaxation and mirth gone in a heartbeat.

"You don't want to be talking about the civil war in here, kid," one of the older, grey-haired guards said quietly. "And you DON'T want to be mentioning it out in the yard either. Fastest way to start a riot. Half of the new prisoners are rebels and the _other_ half think they can earn themselves a pardon by _shanking_ the first half."

"Oh. Right. Sorry," Zuko said. "So… what about the foreigners? Do _they_ riot a lot?"

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"Uh… Hello. New Guy here."

This was the third darker skinned guard Zuko had sidled up to in his attempt to find Sokka after the allotted hour had passed.

"Zuko?" Sokka said lifting his face visor.

Zuko cocked his head to the side in confusion. "…what happened to the code names?"

"I thought you _hated_ the code names?"

"I hated _your_ code names."

" _Meatmaster_ is a perfectly manly name!" Sokka said firing up at once.

Zuko shushed him and then let him in on the bad news. "I asked around the lounge and… I'm sorry Hawk… but there aren't any Water-Tribe prisoners here."

"What? Are you sure? Did you double-check?"

"Yeah, I'm sure."

"Damnit. So we came all this way for nothing? … _Fuck_. I… I failed _again_ ," Sokka said somberly, banging his fists on the railing overlooking the prison yard.

Zuko was suddenly hit with a curious combination of emotions. Ever since his time on Taiyoshima he had been trying to separate and distill the usual mishmash of emotions he felt into their disparate elements. It was helping him better categorize and deal with each emotion in turn, something he was beginning to find was very helpful in his new styles of firebending and, possibly more importantly, in maintaining his self-control.

Currently, he was irritated, at the whole situation he found himself in, angry, because he was _always_ angry, and just now those two emotions had been paired with a hint of… _remorse?_

 _Why am I…_

 _Probably because your friend is beating himself up a little bit,_ Zuko thought, nodding in realization.

Then he froze in shock.

 _Friend? FRIEND?! This idiot isn't my-_

He'd told Sokka about his _scar_.

He hadn't even told _Katara_ how he'd gotten his scar.

He just DIDN'T talk about it. EVER. For any reason.

Certainly, he'd been mildly intoxicated at the time… but… still…

 _Ash and bone… it worked,_ Zuko thought wonderingly a look of complete and utter bewilderment on his face. _I had "manly bonding time" with this idiot and made friends with him. How stupid is that?_

Apparently not very stupid at all, as it had been entirely successful.

 _I… I should say something… cheer him up… How do people DO that?_

He glanced at Sokka, who was now banging his head on the railing with steady if increasing force.

 _What would uncle say?_

"Uh… Sokka, sometimes in life… there are… uh…" Zuko glanced around for inspiration, finally looking up into the very blue sky, "…clouds. And clouds… well, they're fluffy… and…"

 _Wait, uncle had one of those stupid happy sayings about clouds!_

"Clouds are… well, they have two sides. Yes, that was it! Two sides. One is… dark… I think… and the other… is… light? Yes, that tracks. And… between them there is gold… or maybe silver. Yes, definitely silver. And so, it's like… a silver… sandwich? So… when life becomes hard… you should take a bite of that silver sandwich. And probably have some tea. There was always tea in there somewhere."

Sokka who had laid off banging his head on the rail and looked up around the time Zuko had said "sandwich," suddenly brightened. "Maybe we haven't failed after all!" he said, a grin forming on his face.

"Really?" Zuko said, a grin appearing on his face as well. "Wow. I can't believe that actually worked! Honestly, I didn't even know what I was saying."

"No, what you said made no sense at all," Sokka said repressively, "but _look…_ " he slung one arm over Zuko's shoulders and pointed out into the yard.

There in the center of the yard was a surprisingly familiar looking red-headed woman wearing one of the standard prison uniforms.

"It's _Suki_ ," Sokka said with a sappy smile.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"So, what is the plan here?" Zuko said as the two of them marched towards Suki's cell.

"Ok. So. _You_ are going to keep a lookout outside of the cell door, knock twice if somebody's coming. _I_ will be inside, with Suki, hopefully with no pants on."

"Oy!" Zuko barked, glaring at his… _friend_.

"Ok. Maybe just some light under-the-tunic, over-the-bindings action. I'll play it by ear."

"I swear, by my ancestors, if you get us caught because you can't keep it in your pants…"

"You'll what? Glower me to death?"

"No… I'll tell Katara."

"You _wouldn't,_ " Sokka said sounding scandalized. "Besides, she won't believe you anyways."

"Fine. I will tell _Toph_. Who, after she is done kicking your ass, will _then_ tell Katara."

"Oh, that's just… _mean!"_

"Listen, _Hawk_ ,"Zuko said putting one hand on Sokka's shoulder. "Just… reign it in for a little bit, ok? Just until we get out of here? Then you can… _fornicate_ … to your heart's content? Alright?"

Sokka nodded. "Right. Mission. World in peril. Got it."

They reached Suki's cell and, with another nod, Sokka entered. Zuko placed his arms behind his back and turned around to face the corridor.

 _I am a guard. Look at me, guarding away._

Zuko's eye snapped to the cell door as something slammed into it from the inside with a loud BANG. It was, however, immediately followed by the audible intake of breath and the happy sounding exclamation, "Sokka! It's you!"

He rolled his eye.

 _Just a guard… guarding this corridor. Nothing suspicious about THIS guard, no._

"Hey, you!" A female guard called from further along the hallway and she began to stomp towards him.

 _Oh ash,_ Zuko thought, restraining a wince, and tapping on the cell door surreptitiously to alert Sokka.

"I need to get into that cell," the woman growled, glaring beadily up at Zuko.

"Uh… no. You can't… because… well… the _lights_ are out. And the prisoner could sneak up on you."

The guard's glare intensified. "You know, I see this a lot?"

"…I'm sorry?"

"Yeah, it's nearly always the same. One idiot stands outside a cell door, while _another_ idiot is on the inside… _assaulting_ one of my prisoners. Which is generally why we don't let the male guards on to this floor without a chaperone."

"That… well… that's not…"

 _Ash and bone that's EXACTLY what's happening! Minus the assault part. This one is getting a promotion. Possibly TWO promotions._

"Step. Aside," The potential promotee snarled.

It would have been rather easy to dispatch her very quickly with firebending, as close as she was to Zuko, but that would have been unacceptable. She had shown great honor, and Zuko was unwilling to simply end the life of someone who was not only simply doing their job, but doing so in an exemplary manner.

So he instead grabbed her wrist and bent it behind her back, driving her away from the door to allow Sokka to escape.

To his surprise the woman revealed herself to be _exceptionally_ proficientat unarmed combat and, with a lunge and a sweeping motion, she freed herself from his grasp and set about trying to subdue him with a great ferocity. Had Zuko not outmassed her by six inches and a good seventy pounds of muscle, she might have even succeeded.

 _THREE Promotions!_ Zuko thought, pleased in spite of himself.

"Hey!" The woman cried, her eyes darting over Zuko's shoulder, "You there! Help! I think this guy's an imposter!"

Zuko spun around to try and find the new threat, but was unceremoniously tackled as he tried to do so, first by his unknown assailant then by the first guard.

He began to struggle, the idea that it would only take two people to bring him down was asinine, but he froze as the figure behind him hissed quietly in his ear.

"Just be cool, I'll figure it out," Sokka said, as he wrenched Zuko's arms behind his back.

Zuko was on the brink of fighting back anyway, a part of him was sure that the Shinjo idiot had just been biding his time, waiting for a good moment to get Zuko caught and invariably executed. He was probably just-

 _No. He's trustworthy. He's a Prince, like me and… and…_

And, no matter how unlikely it had seemed a fortnight ago, they were now _friends_.

 _This idiot had better come through,_ Zuko thought as he was marched through the prison, _or I am going to cut off his "manly" bits and feed them to a school of piranha-squirrels._

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Zuko tried to remember names and faces of the few guards that helped Sokka remove Zuko's stolen prison uniform and forced him into the rough scratchy red woolens of a prisoner. _They_ would not be receiving any promotions, as it took only the barest of effort on his part, aided by timely distractions from Sokka, for them to entirely miss the fact that their newest prisoner was, in fact, their former prince and probably the most wanted man in the world after Aang.

Unfortunately, that anonymity was, in part, destroyed by the arrival of the warden.

Who, as it turned out, was Mai's uncle.

"Well, well, well. I never thought I'd find you here, your highness."

Not only was Soshi Maken Mai's uncle on her mother's side, he was also the younger brother of _Lord_ Soshi, who Zuko had previously gotten indicted for spiritual negligence. There was a very short list of people that it would have been _worse_ to be captured by.

"You are going to be my _special_ prisoner, boy," Maken said with a sneer. "You should _thank_ me. If I let everyone here know who you were, the traitor prince, well, they'd tear you to pieces."

Zuko, surprised at himself, just smirked. He knew perfectly well that if Maken breathed a word of his identity to the prison at large he'd have a full-scale riot on his hands.

"You think this is funny, boy?" Maken snapped. "Well while I'd _love_ to show the error of your ways, I think it would be more appropriate if I just sent a letter…"

 _Damnit. We're going to have to make a break for it sooner than I'd like t-_

"…to my _niece_ ," Maken finished.

Zuko blinked.

"You know how good she is with her _knives_. I look forward to seeing her sharpen them on your bones!"

Zuko blanched, not in fear of Mai's knives, but in dread of the scolding she was very likely to deliver upon her arrival.

 _This_ had _not_ been part of the plan.

Mai _hated_ deviations from the plan.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Zuko had just given up.

He was done. Could not do it anymore.

He simply was _never_ going to remember all the changes, and firings he was going to have to do in this place when he ascended the throne.

As Sokka had marched him, quite alone and otherwise unsupervised, from the maximum-security wing and into the general population, he had explained how he had gotten Zuko transferred by the simple expedient of claiming that the warden had wanted Zuko moved. Zuko had only been in the tiny box-like cell for about a half an hour before Sokka, playing on the guards' fear of being seen as disobedient, had gotten Zuko released into his custody.

Despite the fact that he was, obviously, not really a prison guard.

 _Really, I'm probably just going to have to close this place down and re-evaluate everything still inside. Who knows how many people are only in here because of my father's mad demon-loving whims._

He contemplated this, and any number of other things, as he resolutely focused on mopping the prison floor. Sokka had deposited him with a work crew that had been gathered to help clean the prison and he determinedly focused on his task so that he would not have to deal with the angry blue eyes that were glaring at him approximately one mop length away.

"Ah, so you two have already met," Sokka said once the detail had spread out enough to make conversation feasible.

"Yes, we have," Suki snapped, her fists tightening on her mop handle, "when he _burned down my village_."

"Oh… yes, that," Zuko said his lone eye still on his mop. "And in Full Moon Bay as well."

Suki's glare changed to one of confusion, which was then replaced by one of shock.

"That was _you_!?" she said, almost dropping her mop in surprise. "The cute guy who didn't know how to shake hands!?"

" _Cute_?" Sokka and Zuko said one on top of the other, goggling at her in horror/surprise.

"I must have been the worst customs agent in the history of the Earth-Kingdom," Suki said, ignoring both of them in favor of looking horrified. "I let the gravel-chewing _Fire Prince_ into the impenetrable city."

"To be fair, you were the only one who even _looked_ at my paperwork," Zuko said respectfully. "And they _were_ excellent forgeries."

Suki resumed glaring at him, although he felt it was slightly less angry than before.

"I am pleased to see that you survived, Ms. Suzuki," Zuko said, giving her a small bow.

Having now managed to recover from the fact that his girlfriend had called Zuko cute, Sokka pulled the two of them aside, into a quiet corner of the area they were supposed to be cleaning so that they could strategize.

"It's going to be a problem, Ghost," Sokka said rubbing at his chin in thought as the three of them sat on their haunches. "I'm pretty sure I can get you and Suki out of this place without much of a fuss, but anything more than that…"

"Who's 'Ghost,'" Suki asked curiously.

"We are not leaving without my people," Zuko said, ignoring the question.

"And we can't leave without my Kyoshi warriors," Suki said glaring at Zuko. "You'll need us to-"

"Your Kyoshi Warriors couldn't fight their way out of a wet rice-paper bag," a quiet voice growled from over their heads.

There peering at them from a balcony above them much like a canary-cat with the cream was Matsu Haki. He dropped down, with a surprisingly quiet thud and grinned at Suki in an unfriendly manner. He didn't even seem to notice that his liege lord, whose back had been to the wall, was right next to him.

 _Hmmm… I guess combing my hair over my face really DOES work as a disguise._

Although it might have also been that the variety of bruises around his face and arms were dulling his senses. Whatever his punishment for the previous altercation in the yard had been, it had been executed in a swift and brutal fashion.

"Back off, flame-brain," Suki said quietly.

"I heard you hatching an escape plan," Haki growled down at the girl who was easily a foot shorter than him.

"Uh… the only thing we're hatching… is an _egg?_ " Sokka said, making excuses rapidly.

"Fine. I'm sure the warden will be interested to hear about this 'egg' you little shi-"

"That will be enough, Major," Zuko snapped.

Haki froze and with the slowness of an armadillo-sloth he turned in place to turn his wide-eyed gaze on Zuko.

" _Highness?_ " he whispered, his face pale and drawn. "Oh Spirits, you've been captured too?"

"No, Major, I came here on purpose. As you can see, I have a man on the inside," Zuko said pointing at Sokka, who gave a little wave.

Haki looked skeptically at the now grinning Unicorn man in prison armor.

"…Isn't that the idiot kid with the boomerang?"

"Hey!" Sokka said, his grin disappearing.

" _That_ is Shinjo Sokka, heir of Shinjo and eldest of Shinjo Hakoda, Chieftain of the Unicorn."

Haki blinked once, then nodded in understanding. "Oh, so he's a prince then. That makes more sense."

"We don't do Pri-" Sokka began, but cut himself off at the exceptionally warm look that Suki was now giving him.

"You didn't tell me you were a _Prince_ ," she said her eyes seeming to glow slightly.

"Oh… well… you know," Sokka mumbled, mildly flustered.

Zuko loudly cleared his throat. "Can we _focus_ please?" He turned to Haki. "How many of the prisoners are on our side?"

"Probably less than a quarter?" Haki said, scratching his beard in thought. "Obviously not enough to just overthrow this place and put that bastard's head on a spike."

"My Kyoshi Warriors will fight," Suki said finally tearing her eyes away from Sokka's.

"Oh, like _that's_ going to flaming help," Haki snorted.

"Major," Zuko said, exhaling a puff of flame from his nose and cutting Suki's no doubt heated retort off before it could begin, "you will keep a civil tongue in your head, or I will _remove_ it."

"Yes, sir," Haki said still glowering at Suki

"What is his problem," Sokka said behind his hand, but not at all quietly enough for Haki to not hear him.

"He's just pissed that my girls keep kicking his ass every time there's a brawl in the yard," Suki said grinning in pride and amusement.

"They cheat," Haki grumbled, his face heating slightly, "gang up on you."

"A numeric advantage is a strategy in its own right," Zuko quoted, shaking his head. "This should actually be rather simple then. No one is expecting your groups to work together. Tonight, during the last yard time, we start a brawl. My retainer and your… uh… friend-"

"Girlfriend," Suki said, lacing her fingers through Sokka's causing a massive grin to form on his face.

"Yes. Fine. Your _girlfriend_ and my retainer's forces working together should allow us to gain the upper hand. If we move fast enough, we should be able to seize the gondolas and make our exit."

"Ok. One change though?" Sokka suddenly looked sheepish. "Do you think we could hold off for one more day?"

"What? Why?"

"Well… uh… the scuttlebutt around the lounge is that we're going to be getting a new shipment of prisoners in tomorrow. I was really hoping…"

"That it would be your father," Zuko finished. He thought for a moment, a pensive frown on his scarred face. "I was hoping to leave before Mai got here. I'd rather not force her hand too s-"

"Mai?" Haki blurted. "Your girlfriend is coming here? Then we need to leave right flaming now!"

"Haki, she is on our side," Zuko said.

"The _ash_ she is! She's the one who captured me and got me locked up in here!"

Zuko drew back in surprise.

 _I told you,_ a voice whispered, _never trust a Scorpion._

"Maybe… maybe we shouldn't risk it then?" Sokka said sadly. "If little Miss Gloomy is in route…"

"No," Zuko said darkly, ignoring his inner doubts. "I trust Mai. She… she must have had a good reason to…"

"A good reason? Sir, I was supposed to bring the whole Matsu family to your side. But my gran won't make a move with me locked up like this."

Zuko mused another long moment before responding. "Did your wife and children escape?"

"Yeah. But just barely."

"Good." Zuko turned his eye on Sokka. "We can wait for the next group to come then, your choice Hawk. If Mai comes… I'll deal with it."

"Ok," Sokka said with an exhale, "we'll stay. Thanks man."

"Who's Hawk?" Suki and Haki asked at the same time.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Zuko spent his next, very sleepless, night in his cell, meditating on the nature of trust.

Trust was dangerous. So very dangerous, more dangerous than swords or flame or any weapon in the hands of an enemy. He knew that better than anyone.

Trust was on the _inside,_ a saboteur waiting for the right moment.

If you never trusted, then you could never be truly betrayed.

He had _trusted_ his father. Trusted that the man was making the right decisions, for Zuko, for the Nation, for Azula. That trust had led to nothing but guilt, ruination, dishonor, and madness.

But Zuko _had_ trusted. Despite the things he knew, and his constant self-recrimination, he had trusted.

He had trusted his officers, and they had rewarded that trust with exemplary skill and with trust of their own.

He had trusted his uncle, and the man had almost lain down his life to ensure that the world had a future, that _Zuko_ would have a chance to make things right.

He had trusted Sokka and, so far, the man had come through.

… Mostly _._

And so, despite all evidence, both real and imagined by the hyper-paranoid section of his brain, he _trusted_ Mai.

She had to have a reason for imprisoning Haki.

Trust _was_ dangerous, but in Zuko's experience everything worth having, and everyone worth knowing, was.

 _Which may be why I am still in love with the most dangerous woman on the planet._

Zuko grinned in the dark of his cell.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

After a long time sitting in the dark, there was a knock at the door of his cell.

" _Ghost?_ You in there?"

"Yes," Zuko said rising to his feet and moving towards the door where Sokka was peering in through the small view-hatch.

"Cool. So, I've got good news and I've got… unknown news?"

"Mai is here, isn't she?"

"Yep. And so's my DAD! He was on the first gondola this morning!" Sokka was beaming, his grin wider than it had been when he had seen Suki.

"I am glad Sokka… I mean _Hawk._ "

"I've already talked to him, Bushy and the Minx," Sokka said with a nod, "we're now a _go_ for operation double-team this afternoon."

Zuko blinked at him. "I'm sorry… who, who and what?"

"Haki and Suki, taking over the prison. Come on man, get with the program!"

"Fine. Yes. Good. Whatever. We are going to have to move quickly if we're going to-"

"Hey! What are you doing there?" came a new voice from down the hall and out of Zuko's vision.

Sokka started, then pulled away from the door, the gears in his head almost visibly spinning. "Uhhh… well… I was just telling this dirty lowlife what I think of him!"

"Well, you're going to have to do that later. He's coming with us to visit the warden. You can have a go if there's anything left of him after that."

 _Oh ash, it's time,_ Zuko thought, a sinking feeling in his stomach.

"Could I just get ten more seconds to rough him up a bit?" Sokka pleaded.

"…Fine, ten seconds," one of the voices said permissively.

Sokka quickly opened and shut the door, immediately being to shout in mock attack, slamming his fist into his palm.

"Take that… and THIS… and a half-dozen of THESE!"

"Listen," Zuko said quietly, close to Sokka's ear so that he could hear him over his own loud exclamations, "If I am wrong, and Mai kills me, you're to escape with everyone and get back to Aang. Tell him to 'go get the Golden Flame.'"

"The what?" Sokka said, leaving off his shouting for a second.

"The 'Golden Flame.' He knows what it means."

"… _Good_ codename!"

The door began to open at that moment, and Sokka immediately put Zuko into a fake headlock and began to make almost comically false angry noises.

"That's enough, rookie. We've got places to be."

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Much to Zuko's growing disquiet he now found himself strapped down and shackled on a rough metal table, waiting for Mai and her uncle. Even his head was immobile, held down by a rubber strap and his palms were pressed flat on the table to discourage firebending. The room was bare metal with only the table, a water spigot, and a floor drain for adornment.

It was not a great room to be left alone and helpless in.

 _I should have FOUGHT them!_ A part of Zuko's mind shouted in panic. _I can't just lie here and wait for the end like a koala-sheep to the slaughter!_

 _I trust Mai,_ the larger part of him retorted.

However, as silence reigned and the seconds grew into long minutes, that panicked portion of Zuko's brain grew larger and more vocal. Zuko strained against his shackles, testing their strength.

They didn't even _rattle._

 _Well… shit._

Finally, barely audible over the sound of his heartbeat hammering in his ears, he heard echoing footsteps coming down the long hallway that he'd been dragged down, growing louder and somehow more ominous the closer they came, along with the raised voices that they carried with them.

"Honestly, Mai, I can't just leave you alone with him. What if he-"

"I can handle myself, Uncle Maken. Besides," and here Mai's voice entered through the doorway and into the room with Zuko, "it will be at _least_ two hours before he even starts making noise. Come back after I've taken out all his fingernails."

"But… the Fire-Lord-"

"His Majesty has even less concern for the well-being of the traitor prince than I do. If I bring him his head, our families will be rewarded appropriately. Now, leave me." Mai spoke in terms of absolute authority and shut the door in her uncle's face.

Then she entered Zuko's field of vision carrying a rolled-up leather bundle under one arm.

A bundle which she then unrolled on the table next to his head.

It was full of _knives,_ in a dazzlingly large variety, and she gracefully pulled one out to examine its edge.

 _Shit._

"Hello Mai. It's good to see you again."

"Coming here was a stupid move, Zuko," Mai said, pulling out a whetstone and dragging the blade across it in a faintly ominous ringing manner.

"Well, I have never claimed to be particularly smart."

Mai laid the blade back down on the table next to Zuko's face, allowing him to get a good look at the deadly edge as she did so. Then she drew another blade, this one fanged and serrated, and began sharpening that as well.

"I must admit, I am surprised," Mai said, examining her knife intently, "I expected this place to be a wreck, bodies lying everywhere, and a dozen guards in here to hold you down."

"I trust you, Mai."

"Another stupid move."

"Maybe… but some people are worth the risk."

Mai blew out a rather standard bored sounding sigh. "Always _so_ dramatic."

"Family trait." Had his shackles allowed it Zuko would have shrugged here.

"I really _should_ take one of your fingernails," Mai said, eyeing him, "just for making me come all the way out here."

Zuko snorted. "Ridiculous. You were already in the area. And I know _why._ "

"Oh? Well, why don't you _enlighten_ me?" Mai said, taking up the first much larger knife and resting it on his unscarred cheek.

"You would have to be quite close to make the transit here at the speed you did," Zuko said completely ignoring the knife on his face in favor of staring up into Mai's tawny eyes. "You are here… because you are trying to figure out how to get Haki out without tipping anyone off."

Mai paused for a long moment before sighing bitterly, and with a single deft motion of her hand, she cut the strap that had been holding Zuko's head down.

 _YEEESSSS!_ Zuko's inner voices cried in triumph as he heaved a sigh of relief.

"What did I miss?" she said, sounding irritated as she pulled a key that she must have lifted off of her uncle out of her sleeve.

"His wife and children," Zuko said grinning at her, much the same as he had on the very very rare occasions he had beat her at Go. "You would never have let them slip away unless you were doing it on purpose."

"That's what I get for being sentimental I suppose," she said, sighing again as she began unlocking his hands and feet.

"He is rather annoyed with you, you know."

"Please. Your asinine 'break up letter' was never going to be enough. I needed to give your sister _something_ so I could stay in her good graces. Haki was the logical choice."

"I thought it would be something like that," Zuko said beginning to rub life back into his limbs. "How… how is she?"

"Not _well_."

Those two words spoke _volumes_.

"Shit."

"So," Mai said, as Zuko continued to rub the stiffness out of his wrists, "how are we going to play this?"

"Very soon there will be a riot in the yard, and we will start a coup of the prison. Haki and the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors are now in collusion and no one here is expecting that. Shouldn't be too-"

"I meant you and me," Mai said blithely.

"You're… coming with us."

"Not yet," Mai said, narrowing her eyes in irritation, "I don't know that I've uncovered all the spies that your father is planting in the rebellion yet. I am very close, but I know I'm missing some."

"Oh." There was a long pause as he contemplated what excuse she could give that would allow the status quo to remain unchanged. "Maybe… I… uh… I… seduced you?" Zuko said questioningly. That was a classically dramatic thing to do.

Mai rolled her eyes.

"I'm open to suggestions here," Zuko growled mildly.

"Fine," Mai said heaving yet another long-suffering sigh. "But I'm telling everyone that you ravished me before you escaped."

"What!? The ash you are!" Zuko spluttered, entirely scandalized. "I wouldn't… You… I mean… Sun's _name_ , Mai."

"What? I'm not good enough to be ravished?" she said cocking an elegant eyebrow.

Zuko continuing to sputter protests for another moment but was cut off as an alarm gong started going off.

"That will be Haki," Mai said, pulling a piece of parchment out of her sleeve. "These are all the names I've managed to discover so far."

"Alright. I… I guess I should lock you in?" He did so then peered through the viewport at her. "Be careful."

Mai flashed him one of her extremely rare smiles. "I'm _always_ careful."

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

The riot was in full swing when Zuko, skulking through hallways to avoid guards, made it to a balcony overlooking the entire conflagration. Every guard on hand seemed to be doing battle with the small knot of prisoners down below and Zuko's well-trained eye took it all in. Suki's warriors and Haki's rebels were working together rather well… but given the disparity in numbers it was effectively a stalemate.

But it wouldn't be for long.

As Zuko watched, more guards continued to trickle out into the yard, gradually turning the tide in their favor, the bulk of the prison population simply watched from a distance, neither helping nor hindering milling around and simply enjoying the spectacle.

 _Damnit. I need to get them involved,_ Zuko thought worriedly. Without much thought he flew forward and leapt onto the balcony's railing, balancing at a corner, and overlooking the yard.

"Sons and Daughters of Fire!" he bellowed down at the throng of people, all of whom suddenly grew still at the sound of his voice. "I am Akodo Zuko, the Prince of Fire! The time has come for you to rise up! Join me, and together we will END this destructive conflict! Join me, and together we will regain our honor! Join with me and regain your FREEDOM!" He finished by raising his fist into the air and summoning his blade of flame.

There was a rather pregnant pause…

… and then he was answered by a thunderous cacophony as most of the formerly unaligned prisoners roared back, fists raised, and charged the prison guards, some of whom were, shockingly, throwing down their helmets and _joining_ Haki and Suki's knot of defenders.

 _Wow. That was really effective!_ Zuko thought, a snarling grin on his face as he lept down to the battleground. _How's THAT for overdramatic!_

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Zuko dodged, blasted, and burned his way through a swath of enemies as he made his way towards the knot of his allies, and his idiot friend.

"Glad to see you could make it!" Sokka crowed, grinning widely. His helmet was off and his "space" sword was in one hand while the other was helping to support a dark-skinned man who could only be Shinjo Hakoda.

The man looked like he had been through the wringer.

Zuko simply grinned at him and, turning to face the enemy, he punched one of them so hard that it knocked his helmet off and put him on the ground. "Status Report," he bellowed.

"We're surrounded and unarmed," Haki said, snarling through a wild grin of his own as he continued a firebending duel against the largish guard who had tried to fire-whip him earlier. "And sir, I am pleased to report that I am KILLING THE UGLY ONE FIRST!"

"We still need to secure the warden," Sokka shouted, pulling his father out of the path of an errant fireblast.

"The warden?" Zuko asked, after headbutting an enemy.

"Yeah. If we don't have leverage, they're just going to cut the gondola lines when we try to cross.

 _Excellent foresight,_ Zuko thought.

He took a step away from the line of battle and a pair of what he assumed were Kyoshi warriors swung into his place. He cast his eye around the prison, starting at the higher levels where he assumed a warden would have his office.

"There!" he shouted pointing his blade of flame straight at Maken who, four levels above them, was staring at Zuko with a rather large amount of rage on his face.

"On it!" Suki barked, and with a jump she leapt up, vaulted off of Haki's head, and began running across the _top_ of the crowd of people.

"Follow her!" Zuko bellowed, and the circle of the battle line began to move, gradually at first, but with growing speed, towards the edge of the prison yard. Their number quickly grew with the addition of prisoners who, fists raised, had begun to chant Zuko's name.

"Zu-ko, Zu-Ko, ZU-KO!"

 _VERY gratifying,_ Zuko thought, _but we need a better chant. Something more unifying…_

As he made his slow way to the wall he kept one eye, or more correctly one _half_ of one eye, on Suki as they followed behind her.

She was, he had to admit, nothing short of breathtaking.

After making her way over top of the crowd of combatants, using their heads like stepping stones, she scaled the metal prison wall with a series of flips and clever climbing. By the time Zuko and company made it to the ground floor stairwell she was already three stories up, single-handedly fighting and defeating multiple groups of firebending enemy guards. Running at top speed, leaving the bulk of the still rapidly growing crowd of allies on the ground, Zuko and Sokka made their ascent, passing by the bodies of foes that Suki had already defeated.

They barely made it to the top floor in time to see her gag Maken, having already tied his hands behind his back.

"Sorry, Warden, you're _my_ prisoner now," she said with a smirk, just on the near side of sultry.

The group of men who had followed her up stopped to catch their breath and appreciate the view.

"That's some girl!" Hakoda said, giving his son a shake.

"I'd be her prisoner," Haki said wonderingly.

Zuko just whistled softly, if appreciatively.

"Hey!" Sokka said, firing up.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

The warden secured and slung over Haki's shoulder like a bag of rice, Zuko had leaned over the rail and bellowed down to the mob of people to make for the gondolas. With the warden as a hostage and a surprising number of guard defections, they made it to the gondola docks with little trouble.

So little trouble that it had actually made Zuko nervous.

The gondolas were large, but not nearly large enough to take the entire mass of prisoners who were escaping and guards who were merely submitting their immediate resignations. They were going to have to make several trips and Zuko, much to Haki's consternation, insisted that he would go last.

"Highness there's no flaming TIME for this. We need to get you out of here!"

"I am not going anywhere, Major," Zuko snapped. "I have a duty to these people and-" he cut himself off at the sound of a horrible brittle sounding laughter.

"So very _noble,_ Zuzu!" an unfortunately familiar voice called out after the laughter died away.

 _Damn it. I KNEW this was too easy._

"Nice to see you again, sister," Zuko called out as Azula appeared, a horde of loyalist guards, along with soldiers she must have brought, behind her.

"I don't HAVE a brother," Azula spat, her voice now cold as she stalked towards him. "Nobody in MY family would commit treason."

"It's not treason to overthrow an honorless madman, Azula!"

Azula laughed again, a bright jagged thing, that hurt his heart to hear. "Weak! So _weak!_ Just like mother. She died for _you_ , you know? _Died_ because-"

"She's ALIVE, Azi."

Azula cut off, her eyes wide.

"She is _ALIVE,_ " Zuko said, "and I am going to bring her home once our father has been put down like the rabid dog he is. It… it doesn't have to be this way, Azi! We can-"

"No, we CAN'T!" Azula snarled and with very little warning she bent fire.

Zuko reached into himself and did so as well.

He bent fire in a technique that he had only barely remembered from the North Pole, and had been stunned to see inscribed in the High Temple of the Sun-Warriors.

It was named "Ganko" and it meant _stubborn._

Zuko had taken to it like a turtle-duck to water.

A _wall_ of red flame rose between them, twenty feet high and burning with crimson intensity. Azula's blue flame simply fell into it and was absorbed. Ganko blocked the entire pathway to the docks and no one tried to come through.

"Wow," Sokka said looking up at the curtain of flame.

"Hawk?" Zuko said through gritted teeth. "I would appreciate it if you could see if you can't do anything to make those gondolas go faster. I'm not sure how long I can hold this."

"Oh… Right," Sokka said, and trotted over to the crowd of also goggling escapees and began to chivvy them onto the gondolas.

After five minutes, Zuko began to sweat.

After ten he began to breathe more heavily.

At twenty his knees began to wobble.

And after a half an hour he gasped as Haki shouted that everyone was over.

"Right," Zuko said and gritting his teeth he began to walk slowly backwards, the wall of fire following, growing more unsteady with every step.

As he reached the gondola, he twisted his hands out and flung the wall at the pursuers that he could not rightly see. The wall of flame diminished rapidly in height but still forced Azula and her soldiers back long enough for Haki to pull him into the gondola and for Sokka to throw the lever on the docks forward and then cut that same lever off at the base with his space-sword.

And then the gondola was away.

That… was… AWESOME," Sokka said jubilantly, grabbing Zuko by the collar of his prison shirt and shaking him back and forth where he sat on the gondola floor.

"Son? I don't think we're off the bad ice yet," Hakoda said, looking back at the gondola dock.

"My sister is pursuing us somehow, isn't she?" Zuko said tiredly.

"Yep," Sokka said after rising to his feet and looking out the gondola in the direction his father was pointing. "Looks like she's using a handcuff to ride the wire. And she's got the acrobat with her."

"Good," Suki said with a glower, "this is the re-match I've been waiting for."

Zuko started to ask her if she would mind not killing his sister and friend but realized, before he even opened his mouth, that this might be asking a bit much at this point.

So, instead, he lurched to his feet and tiredly took in the sight of Azula and Ty Lee making their slow but steady way towards his gondola which was now approaching the halfway point.

Zuko sighed and rolled his neck with a popping sound.

"Prepare to repel boarders," he growled

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

The duel of Suzuki Suki and Ikoma Ty Lee was the sort that would later be spoken of in tones of reverence and awe by those who had the good fortune to see it. It was an elegant dance on the roof of a gondola that swayed dangerously over a lake of boiling water and, in spite of that, displayed some of the finest non-bending martial arts of both the Earth-Kingdom and the Fire-Nation. Their technique was flawless, their prowess unmatched. Had a poet or painter been there they very likely would have had a seizure at the pure artistry and inspiration of the two rapidly moving women.

And on the other side of the gondola there was Zuko and Sokka vs Azula… which looked more like a drunken tag-team match.

Zuko, seriously fatigued from holding Ganko for nearly a half an hour, would only barely manage to deflect fire from Azula, and then Sokka would dart out from behind him and attack with space-sword. Even through the haze of exhaustion, Zuko recognized Lord Ikoma's influences on Sokka's swordsmanship. He was impressed, and no longer grudgingly so, as Shinjo Sokka managed to fend off his sister.

Zuko was content with the stalling tactic; they only had to hold the two girls off until they reached the other side of the lake. Then they would have to either flee or be captured by Zuko's superior numbers.

However, the balance of power was disrupted when Soshi Maken, having somehow managed to spit out his gag, shouted out across the boiling lake back to his prison.

"CUT THE LINE!"

And within seconds the gondola had ground to a swaying halt, disrupting everyone's balance.

… _Fuck._

The guards below had thrown a literal wrench in the gearage, and were even now bringing out a giant saw to follow their warden's orders.

"It's time to leave," Azula called to Ty Lee, and with a smirk and a blast from her feet she threw herself to the gondola heading in the opposite direction quickly followed by Ty Lee.

There was a long silence as Zuko watched his sister glide away.

"Plan?" he called over his shoulder.

"Nope."

"Nothing."

"Sorry."

"Yeah, can I _kill_ this guy?" Haki shouted from below, holding a growling and re-gagged Maken out of the window.

"He is a _prisoner,_ Haki," Zuko said repressively.

"Yeah, I know that but-" Haki cut himself off as the gondola, inexplicably, began to move forward again.

"Who's that?" Hakoda asked gazing out the window at the frenzy of activity on the docks below.

A dwindling figure in red and black now spun and fought below. Her knives flashing, her long black hair flying.

 _NO,_ Zuko thought, his lone eye wide with a burst of horror… followed very quickly with a strange fierce calmness.

"Oh… _ash_. _Highness_? I can't allow you to-" Haki began.

"Sokka? I need to borrow boomerang," Zuko said, eye still fixed on the prison he had just escaped from.

"Uh… Ok. Sure," Sokka said handing him the angled metal weapon.

"Sir! I need you to-"

"My sister will have brought a ship when she came here. Find it, and get everyone on it," Zuko said, ignoring Haki in favor of contemplating the angled metal weapon.

"Yeah, but-"

"Damn it! You get your royal ass back in-"

"Remember," Zuko said, turning, and putting his hand on Sokka's shoulder, " _Gold_ flame."

"Ok… sure, but-"

Zuko didn't wait for him to finish as with a leap he linked his arms around the gondola cable and, supported by Sokka's boomerang, began to slide back towards the Boiling Rock, Haki's loud cursing fading away behind him.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Zuko ignored the pain in his shoulders and hands as he watched the scene unfold below him.

Mai fought valiantly but was subdued, overwhelmed by firebending and superior numbers before Azula even disembarked from her gondola.

Then they squared off against one another, Mai and Azula, glaring, their conversation too far away to hear but the postures so familiar, like that night on Ember Island.

Then Azula summoned lightning.

Even Zuko gasped in shock as Ty Lee, innocent, _loyal_ , Ty Lee, moved in a blur and struck Azula, interrupting the lightning and blocking her chi.

Ty Lee sprang towards Mai, attempting to pull her away, but she was instead tackled by almost a dozen soldiers whose shock had evaporated as soon as she began to move towards Mai.

Two guards propped Azula up as she faced down Mai and Ty Lee, both of whom were being held on their knees by a multitude of guards. One of them struck Mai on the back of the head, forcing a cry from her that even Zuko could hear over the rising wind in his ear.

A cry which was only one note, one part of the terrible harmony that was the _SONG_ which boiled through him.

"What should we do with them, Highness?" a guard asked, all eyes locked on to Azula.

"Put them somewhere I'll never have to see their faces again, and let them ROT!" Azula screamed, pain and fury in her voice.

Everyone was looking at the slumped form of the Princess. Most still in shock at a betrayal that no one, not even the Princess herself, had foreseen.

 _Nobody_ saw Zuko coming.

 **BOOOOM!**

Zuko hit the docks like the unholy offspring of a Kayaku bomb and a Comet. The stonework cracked, the shockwave took everyone off their feet, and a corona of red flame scorched the stone all around him.

A part of him wanted to say something dramatic, something that Mai could sigh and roll her eyes about later, but he was too tired to think of anything. So, he simply rose from the crater he had made, surrounded by malignant looking red flames, and roared wordlessly at his enemies as they scrambled to their feet.

The guards took one look at him… and fled, the still screaming figure of his sister in tow.

Those few who were either brave enough or stupid enough to stay were quickly paralyzed by a now freed Ty Lee.

Once they were out of sight, Zuko fell to his knees, panting.

"C'mon, Zuko," Ty Lee said as she scooped an exhausted Mai off the ground, "we gotta go before Azula figures out a way to scare them even more than you did."

On shaking legs, he managed to stagger after her and into the gondola.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"I can't believe you did that," Mai said quietly as she slumped against the side of the gondola.

"I can't believe that _you_ did that," Zuko said from much the same posture on the other side of the gondola.

"I can't believe that _any of us_ did _any_ of those things!" Ty Lee said with a smile, her voice still full of energy, the only one of them not teetering at the edge of exhaustion.

"What the ash were you thinking?" Mai said a hint of anger in her tired monotone.

" _I_ -" Zuko began- "am the one who does stupid, overdramatic stuff. _You_ are the one who is _careful._ Stupid," he pointed to himself, "careful," the finger swung back to Mai.

"Idiot."

"…Pretty sure I _just_ said that," Zuko said, a small smirk manifesting on his face.

"And… and you?" Mai said, looking at Ty Lee, seeming as utterly mystified as Zuko had ever seen her. "Why would you-"

Then Ty Lee kissed her.

"You know why, dummy," she said, a sunny smile on her face.

Mai smiled. Smiled wider than Zuko had ever seen, wider than he would have thought possible.

Then she kissed her back.

Zuko smiled, nodding to himself. _Good for them, I have always thought that-_

They continued kissing.

Zuko cleared his throat, _loudly_ , to remind them he was still there.

They ignored him.

His face rapidly growing the same color as the approaching sunset, he hauled himself to his feet and staggered to the front of the gondola, facing away from them.

Mai let out a soft happy sound that Zuko would have previously wagered money that she was not _capable_ of making.

"Oy! Could you not-" Zuko then made the mistake of turning around. His well-practiced eye and analytical brain noted positions of hands and faces and a sudden and _surprising_ lack of clothing.

Literal, physical, _steam_ shout out of his ears as he whipped back around, facing away from his two friends.

Ty Lee let out a gasp. An extremely _suggestive_ gasp.

Akodo Zuko, Prince of Fire, stuck his fingers in his ears and began to hum.

* * *

 **A/N: Congratulations! You've reached the end of THIS, my longest chapter to date, my take on "The Boiling Rock," AND a nice surprise ending that I hope you enjoyed. But if you didn't (or if you did) as always I want to hear about it. So click that figurative button and blah your insights/criticism/praise/rage/love/etc out on to your keyboards and let me have it. Go on, I dare you.**

 **But enough prodding, if you're still reading it's because you want…**

 **Such** **BITS.** **Much** **META.**

 **Floating heads:** **The conversation between Sokka and Zuko in the balloon as they floated along is easily the oldest part of this chapter, predating the addition of Ursa and Kiyi from the last chapter even. I just started writing dialog, without tags, of those two goons (who I love) going back at forth at one another. It was a hell of a time, I was laughing to myself as I just sort of sat back and just "listened" to them argue/fight/drink/fight again and eventually bond. I hope that I've added enough tags and extraneous action for it to be coherent but if not please let me know. I am a worrier, especially where this is concerned.**

 **Male bonding:** **I hope that I was as successful here in creating a legitimate reason why Sokka and Zuko became friends, as I seemed to be with Aang and Zuko previous to this. I definitely see Sokka as the impetus of the whole thing, Zuko literally** _ **would**_ **have just sat there meditating the whole time. I do not think that even HE intended it to work as well as it did though. I think he would have seen it as just another manly thing; spent the night drinking with an old enemy, then thrilling heroics. But instead, he gets a guy his age who he can bicker with over weapons/code names/earth rumbles and will simultaneously risk his own life, several times, just on the off chance Hakoda** _ **might**_ **be there. There is also the fact that he now knows that Zuko is still in love with Katara. He has given him the requisite punches to the face for making her cry and I think he kinda feels for him. He is kinda a sad sack.**

 **Landing on the island:** **So, one of the things that bothered me, because I pay too much attention to stuff that is neither work or school related, is the landing on Boiling Rock. In the show… do they land on the far side of the lake? The part** _ **without**_ **the prison? Because it certainly looks like it to me. If so… how did they get into the prison? Then, how did they get guard uniforms? How did… just everything. But, as previously mentioned I think too much.**

 **Overlord's Rules:** **If you, for some reason, have not seen them go google "peter's evil overlord list," and enjoy. Essentially, for those of you who are either lazy or require more persuading, it is a meta-list of all the really bad villain clichés and tropes and how, as a super-villain, to avoid them. As I have painted the Fire-Nation as very much an island OF somewhat cliched villain types they, by pure narrative logic must be in violation of quite a few of them. I know that Ozai had at least one as mentioned in previous A/Ns. Currently, Maken is in violation of #1, probably #2 as well. Actually, in review, there are a lot of these being broken by the FN at large. Probably why they lost to a 12-year-old (in canon.)  
**

 **Coolers? What coolers?:** **Again with the jenky technology level! Not that they don't have the technology to do something like this, but to have multiple cells with sub-zero temps like that? While being set next to a lake of boiling water? That would require an extraordinary amount of power output, and thus expense and just sheer… agh! Physics! Thermodynamics! SCIENCE! JARGON!**

 **Anyways. I didn't like it, so I got rid of it. Shortened the escape. Now Haki (who got to replace Chit Sang) just get strapped to the "table" that we saw later, and got the hell beat out of him. Which leads us directly to…**

 **Matsu Haki:** **The tradition of taking political prisoners is a long and time-honored one. That's really what the Boiling Rock is. A holding cell for those whose families are being compelled with the threat of violence to their family members. Haki is being held because the Matsu family is large and, after Akodo, has the most direct vassals and troops under their direct control. Holding somebody in their line of succession would effectively put them in a holding pattern for the entire war. A serious blow to Zuko's side, which is why Azula let Mai remain in the FN after she "failed to predict" Zuko's betrayal.**

 **Suki also a BAMF:** **Holy crap! Go watch Suki again on the show. At one point she literally scales a metal wall, a sheer metal wall, with only her hands! Is she Spiderman? Spider-suki! Even Haki is impressed. I hope that the sheer awesomeness of that scene came through here, cause it was. Awesome.**

 **The problem with maiko:** **So, what follows is probably an ill-advised rant about shipping. Should you feel inclined, go ahead and skip to the next point, I won't hold it against you.  
**

 **One of the anti-zutara things that often gets discussed is that Zuko would have jumped in front of that lightning bolt for anyone. If that is the case… why didn't he go back for Mai? We're talking the same expectation of death here, and this time for his "official" romantic interest. Yet, Zuko makes absolutely no effort whatsoever (in canon) to go get her back. He has already infiltrated one scary impossible prison, what's one more? Why would honor-obsessed Zuko, who now owes Mai a** _ **huge**_ **debt not do ANYTHING to redress this? Yet we are expected to believe this same person would sacrifice himself, once again defying physics as he did so, and leap in front of a lightning bolt… for a good friend.**

 **Nope. Just nope. Lacking in internal consistency. So, because it's my world and I'll bloody well do what I want, we get the most thrilling heroics. Zuko does love Mai, but in a very different and non-romantic way.**

 **I regret nothing.**

 **Chapter Length Again:** **This is the longest chapter I've written so far. Honestly, if there had been a good place to do it I would have split it into two (even canon did it in two episodes) so please don't be disappointed when next weeks chapter is less than 10k? I need time to do other stuff! No matter how much I wish I would just win the Powerball so I could do nothing but write all day, it ain't happening. Thanks for being understanding.**

 **ANNOUNCEMENT:** **I'm sure that some of you (hopefully) will be excited to hear that book one of my Katara-centric work is now completed in it's first very very ROUGH draft. So, yes, you will be getting that at some point in the future. However, I regret to inform about half of you that, due to formatting concerns it will most likely NOT be appearing on FFN. It will be available on AO3 however. The problem is the "strikethrough" effect. The work is in the style of a journal and I started using strikethrough as a way of showing edits, censorship, and other various bits of hilarity. Unfortunately, it does not seem that strikethrough is supported by FFN. So, unless I can figure out a way of getting the same effect without it… you see the problem.**

 **Well that's it folks, see you next time. Don't forget to comment/review for all the reasons as stated above.**

 **Thanks for reading!**

 **.**

 **.**

 **NEXT WEEK on a very special "Avatar: The Last Dragon"...**

 **Zuko goes on a road (air) trip and is shouted at a great deal.**

 **TUNE IN. Same Zuko time, Same Zuko channel!**

 **Original post date: 3 February 2019**


	11. Accommodations, Avoidance, and Anger

**A/N:** **The Following is rated T; for Transition.**

 **It corresponds, chronologically, with the period between "The Boiling Rock" and "The Southern Raiders."**

 **Reader discretion is advised.**

* * *

Chapter 11 "Accommodations, Avoidance, and Anger"

* * *

 **Late Spring, year 12 in the reign of Fire-Lord Ozai**

Upon his arrival, Zuko was greatly pleased to find that Sokka and the rest of the escapees had managed to commandeer Azula's airship and subdue the remaining crew without any input or effort on his part. He really wasn't sure just how much help he would have been anyways, he had already done several very stupid and impossible things over the last hour and now the only thing that was keeping him upright was momentum and pride.

He strode through the airship's stark metal corridors only barely acknowledging the many deep bows of the previous inhabitants of Boiling Rock, and trailed by the group of people whose names he actually knew. As he went, and with as few words as possible, he made the following things clear.

 _Sokka_ was in charge of the ship.

No, Suki and Ty Lee were not allowed to continue their duel.

NO. Haki was NOT allowed to challenge Mai to one either.

Yes, he would be sure to replace Sokka's boomerang, as the one he had borrowed had been worn away to nearly nothing during his abrupt and unplanned return to the prison.

Those things accomplished, Zuko managed to make it all the way into the former captain's cabin, remove one shoe, and then pass into a thankfully dreamless sleep for a whole six hours, which was far in excess of what he was used to getting.

When he swam back into wakefulness the porthole window of his cabin was dark, showing only the inky black of the North Sea without a hint of land in sight. He stared into the dark for a long moment, gathering his wits to him.

Then, as was his custom, he quickly got to work.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Though no one present remarked on it, it was a rather odd scene; Zuko, still in his prison uniform, leaning over the former captain's rather opulent desk, giving directives to over a dozen ex-prison guards, all of whom stood at rapt attention while Sokka and Suki looked on.

Despite maintaining his normal brusque and business-like tone, Zuko was extremely pleased to find that the guard who had been so protective of the female prisoners, one Sgt Kobayashi Bara, was among the group. He actually allowed himself a small smirk when he singled her out among her peers as exemplary with a slight bow.

She, however, was mortified to learn that she had laid hands on a _Prince_. Mortification which only increased to near fatal levels when Zuko had informed her that she was now a _Captain_ , in charge of her former co-workers, _and_ charged with presenting Zuko with an accounting of every prisoner, their crimes, and a recommendation as to whether they were trustworthy or not.

"It is the very least I can do," Zuko said as she stared at him, wide-eyed. "After all, what you thought was happening," he gestured at Sokka and Suki who were currently making eyes at one another, "was basically what was happening."

After a few more general orders the former guards, now officers, filed out of the room looking alternately nervous and excited. A heartbeat later Mai glided into the room, her face set in its normal mask of calm and poise. Zuko made formal introductions between her, Sokka and Suki, to which Mai rolled her eyes while Suki snorted dismissively.

There was a long silence as Mai remained motionless and staring at Sokka and Suki.

"I think she wants us to leave," Sokka stage whispered.

"Mai, these are our allies, there is no need for this," Zuko said.

Mai just arched one eyebrow, somehow expressing both disdain and disagreement at the same time.

"Whatever," Suki said irritably. "Let's just go so they can discuss grave-robbing, or orphanage burning, or whatever it is that villains talk about." She grabbed Sokka by the arm and began to half drag him out of the room.

Before he had left, but after he was behind Mai, Sokka raised his eyebrows in a question at Zuko. Zuko had just shrugged, he had no idea what Mai wanted.

"Was that really necessary?" Zuko asked after the door clicked shut.

"Considering I am about to give you an intelligence brief about your new friend's _father?_ Yes," Mai said tone dry and with a hint of a scold.

 _Oh. Ok, that's fair,_ Zuko thought. He sat at the desk and nodded for Mai to go ahead.

Mai's report, delivered in her normal monotone with a sarcasm garnish, was quite comprehensive. Shinjo Hakoda had become chieftain of the Unicorn almost fifteen years ago, before the armistice had been broken and Zuko's father's reprisals had been so devastating. After that point, Hakoda had begun conducting low intensity naval and land-based guerilla warfare for the entire duration of Ozai's reign. The fact that he was a known enemy and yet had never been caught spoke to his skill. The fact that no one in the Admiralty had thought him worth even forming a task force over spoke to the fact that, no matter how tactically brilliant or strategically mobile he might have been, his wooden ships simply presented very little threat to the Iron Fleet at large.

Mai then briefly went over his customary strategic maneuvers and the personality assessment that naval intelligence had assembled. In short, he was a driven, but cautious warrior who favored action over words. She recommended that Zuko simply address him one warrior to another with as little pomp or subterfuge as possible. She then said that she did not expect this to be a problem as Zuko "was _also_ an idiot."

Zuko grinned at her and, wonder of wonders, she actually smiled back minutely.

A smile that only intensified in slightly malign amusement as the cabin door flew open again and Ty Lee bustled into the room with a clothes rack, a sewing kit under her arm, and a manic gleam in her eyes. Zuko's face returned to his more normal scowl.

It would seem that he would need to be appropriately dressed.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Shinjo Hakoda, Zuko decided, was a _master_ glowerer.

He studied the man across the table behind a glower of his own, attempting to glean just what it was that made it so effective.

A master was always worth studying.

It was something in the eyes he was sure. Every other part of the man seemed to be utterly and completely relaxed. Entirely genial. Just another man taking his ease in the chair at the head of the table in the airship's breakroom.

But his _eyes_ tracked every move Zuko made, icy blue flints cataloging and assessing, missing nothing, even as Zuko tugged at the high collar of his so recently re-fitted uniform.

Ty Lee had at least been persuaded not to add a cape this time, and Zuko's formal grey and black uniform was relatively unadorned, with only his rank at the collar and the crimson sash that indicated his rank as a master firebender slashing from his left shoulder to his waist.

It was quiet in the airship's conference room, the only sounds being the steady hum of machinery from the engines in the aft of the ship and the slight clink of ceramic as Ty Lee, having agreed to dust off the famed Ikoma tea ceremony skills, brewed and served. The two men simply eyed one another from opposite ends of the table as they waited for, and then drank, their tea.

And then with a loud bang the door burst open, making Zuko and Hakoda's heads simultaneously snap to the side as Sokka strode in.

"Hey, sorry I'm late. So much… _captaining_ to do!" he said, looking rather pleased with himself as he dropped into one of the chairs halfway between his father and Zuko. "Ooh, tea! Do we have any snacks to go with it? Maybe some of those little cakes?"

Zuko and Hakoda both snorted in amusement at roughly the same time, then resumed glowering at one another.

Ty Lee giggled and, batting her eyelashes as Sokka, brought out a plate of the simple rice cakes that were all the galley had apparently had. Sokka took one and began chewing on it quite loudly.

There was a long pause as Sokka chewed.

"Hmm... Ginger?" Sokka said eyeing the rice cake.

"And a dash of pepper," Ty Lee said, beaming.

There was an even longer pause as Sokka finished his rice cake and grabbed another.

"Have they been like this the whole time?" Sokka asked Ty Lee from behind his hand, as usual not anywhere _near_ quietly enough to not be heard.

"Oh yes," Ty Lee tittered. "Standard male bushi posturing."

There was yet another long moment of silence broken only by Sokka's still audible crunching.

"So, who's winning?"

"Well, normally I would be wagering on Zuko," Ty Lee said taking on a posture of deep thought, "but… your dad has some pretty good poise. Honestly, I think it's a draw. Mai?" She and Sokka both turned their eyes to the far corner of the room where Mai stood, silent and assessing.

She only nodded slightly.

"Hmm. Well, I guess I better break the stalemate," Sokka said dusting crumbs off his tunic. Then, with something approaching formality he bowed in his seat towards his father. "Honored father, may I introduce my sworn battle-brother, Akodo Zuko, General, and Prince of the Fire-Nation." He turned away from Hakoda, whose eyes had gone wide at the term "battle-brother," to face Zuko. "Zuko, this is my dad," he said simply, then he kicked his boots up onto the table, and held his teacup up for a refill, thanking Ty Lee as she poured.

"That was actually really good!" Ty Lee said brightly. "Very tension diffusing!"

"Thanks. Did you see how I did the formal thing with my dad and the informal thing with Zuko? It's the _dichotomy_ that does it."

"Very nice."

Zuko shook his head minutely in consternation then turned to resume his glowering match with Hakoda, only to find him still watching his son… _fondly._

Zuko schooled his features to calm as a wave of emotion suddenly washed over him. His face remained wooden as he fought to sort through and catalog the awful emotive soup.

 _Grief, fury, nausea, and… envy._

 _His_ father had never looked at him like that. Not in any memory he could readily summon to mind. There was a vague half-formed impression of his father once laughing somewhat happily in his presence, but that was so long ago the Zuko couldn't even grasp the context. He didn't even want to contemplate what _his_ father would have done had he acted so disrespectfully in his presence.

Mostly because he didn't _have_ to contemplate it. The answer to that question was clearly visible to him in any reflective surface.

So, he simply sipped his tea, pushing the parts of him that wanted to scream, howl, and just generally kill a great many things in fury, back into the darker recesses of his mind.

 _Just one more reason that I know that this is the right path._

Hakoda eventually turned his head back to Zuko and that fondness faded back into malign caution.

"What do you _want,_ Prince Zuko?" Hakoda asked.

"Allies, Lord Shinjo," Zuko said copying his terse tone.

"We don't have _Lords_ in the Unicor-"

"Just leave it, dad," Sokka interjected, "he's kinda a stickler for that sort of thing."

"Sokka…" Hakoda turned back to his son, his eyes now less fond and far more in keeping with what Zuko saw as normal father-son relations. "Exactly who's side are you on here?"

"Side? Me? I'm on _our_ side," Sokka said, examining another rice cake. "Which is why we're all here right now, I think." He glanced over to Zuko. "I don't suppose you have a copy of that little speech thing? Might save us some time."

Ty Lee was already at Hakoda's side with a rather crisp copy of Zuko's declaration on a small tray.

"It was actually really well done," she said as Hakoda took the sheet and began to read. "Even Azula thought so."

Zuko looked at her, his lone eyebrow rising in surprise.

"Well, she said so _after_ she had set a bunch of stuff on fire," Ty Lee amended, then stuck her lower lip out in a sudden pout. "I lost a great many really well-coordinated outfits that day."

 _Laying it on a bit_ thick _today, I see,_ Zuko thought. Ty Lee, it seemed was making an extraordinary effort to make sure no one present saw her as threatening, laying on the "perky idiot" act a little harder than usual after her very visible duel with Suki, and her very _memorable_ betrayal of Azula.

"This is very… nice," Hakoda said tossing the paper down on the table and re-affixing Zuko with his glower, "but I fail to see what this has to do with me."

"You don't think that civil war in the nation you so very recently failed to _invade_ has anything to do with you?" Zuko growled.

"I think that when the snow settles, we'll see what's what," Hakoda said icily.

"So, you will do _nothing?_ " Zuko snapped. "Like the _Crane_?"

"I am _not_ Crane, boy."

"Then perhaps the successor of _Chagatai_ ought to remember that!"

"You are aware that his grandfather killed yours?" Hakoda said, turning his head to Sokka.

Sokka glanced at Zuko, who nodded in confirmation.

"Well… no, I wasn't," Sokka said with a shrug, "but that was a long time ago."

"And your _mother?_ " Hakoda asked, eyes now a pair of icy blue tundra, "was _that_ a long time ago?"

Sokka grimaced and kicked his boots off the table turning to face his father completely. "Dad, do you think that Zuko here had something to do with that? Spirit's sake, he's younger than me."

"He's _Fire-Nation_ ," Hakoda growled. "How can you just-"

"Because he's my battle-brother," he gave Zuko a nod, "and my friend."

"You can't just claim that he's-"

"We shared a drink, a secret, and fought against and alongside one another," Sokka said. "If there is another requirement, I've never heard it."

 _Ash and bone, was THAT what that was all about?_

"It is not that simple, Sokka," Hakoda said. "Which you'd understand if-"

"If my father hadn't _left_ for a decade?" Sokka said leaning forward, his eyes now shockingly similar to his father's, as he cut him off again.

Hakoda's mouth hung open for a moment, before he shook his head and refocused. "Now isn't the time for this, son."

"Then _when?_ " Sokka said voice quiet but forceful. "We didn't talk about it in Chameleon Bay, or before Black Sun, when exactly do you think we'll talk about it?"

"When we're not trapped on an airship surrounded by enemies!" Hakoda shouted.

"And that's what I'm trying to tell you, dad. We're _not._ Sure, I don't know these two," he indicated Mai and a waving Ty Lee, "but Zuko vouches for them…" he leaned back in his chair and picked up another rice cake, "and I vouch for Zuko."

"Why?" Hakoda said quietly, and Zuko had to admit that he was thinking the same thing.

"Because… well… he's honorable," Sokka said wryly as he examined another rice cake. "The first time I met him he beat the spirits-loving slush out of me, but because I didn't have a _wakizashi_ he didn't even _firebend_ at me. And when I told him I wanted to break into an inescapable prison to try and find my father and redeem my own honor… he didn't even hesitate." He barked a laugh. "Frost, he didn't even give me a choice."

 _The ash does that mean?_ Zuko thought. _That's…_

"...Asinine," he said aloud shaking his head. "How else could I have acted?"

Sokka snorted in amusement as he turned back to his father. "See?" he said gesturing back at Zuko.

"...That is not the kind of treatment the Water-Tribes are used to at the hands of the Fire-Nation," Hakoda said after a long pause, his glower now carrying the barest hint of appraisal.

"Well," Sokka said, his mouth partially full of another rice cake, "maybe if we ever want that to _change_ , we should at least hear Zuko out?"

There was another very long pause as Hakoda stared at Zuko musingly.

"Alright. I'll hear you out."

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Zuko was eventually going to have to find some way of really thanking Sokka.

There would be some bowing, some sort of symbolic gift of brotherhood, there would probably be one of those barbarian handshakes that everyone outside the Fire-Nation seemed to favor.

But not at the moment. At the moment Sokka was being _annoying._

"Alas, poor boomerang…"

Over the last few days, as they made their ponderously slow way back to the Western Air Temple, Sokka would, oh so casually, pull out the eroded bit of metal that had once been a boomerang, and sigh despondently over it.

Zuko was beginning to think that he had had a rather unhealthy attachment to the weapon and, as it was Zuko thinking it, that was really saying something.

"I already promised to get you a new one," he said aloud, not turning from his observation of a particularly interesting sunset. He had found that turning to engage only resulted in an intensification of Sokka's ridiculousness, complete with facial expressions.

"...we only barely knew ye, sweet boomerang."

"I thought you said you'd had it forever and that it was of 'sentimental' value?" Zuko pointed out.

"Oh Boomerang, truly you were the greatest of weapons. So strong. So sure. So pointy in all the right places."

"You're being an idiot," Zuko said, the small grin on his face belying his words.

"Your _face_ is being an idiot," Sokka said, his tone unchanged as he continued to rub the mangled shard of metal against his cheek in mock sorrow.

Zuko just rolled his eye.

"Why? Oh, why did it have to be _you_ , boomerang? Oh woe, woe unto my-"

"It _had_ to be boomerang," Zuko said idly.

"...why?" Sokka said, now looking at Zuko in genuine curiosity.

"Because…" Zuko exhaled bitterly, "because boomerang always comes _back_."

Sokka stared at him mutely for a long moment with a startled look on his face before it split into a wide and triumphant grin.

"YEEESSSSS!" he cried. "Up _top!_ "

Zuko turned from his contemplation of the sunset to look at Sokka who had one hand raised high over his head and a rather expectant look on his face.

"...On top of what?"

Sokka, his hand still in the air, stared at him slack-jawed. "On… on top of… it's a high five!"

"Is that another airship term I don't know of?" Zuko asked.

"No! It's… it's a freezing _high five_! Everyone knows how to high five!"

Zuko just stared at him skeptically.

"You just… spirits… just put your hand up, like mine is," Sokka said pointing at his still raised appendage.

Zuko obligingly pulled one of his hands out from behind his back and raised it in into the air. Sokka quickly slapped his palm with his own.

"What… was that supposed to accomplish?" Zuko asked, glancing between Sokka and his hand curiously.

"For the Moon's sake, it's a _high five_! It's… it's just something you do. After… you're victorious." This last was almost inflected as a question.

"So… it is like a victory ceremony?" Zuko asked, frowning slightly as his mind flashed through all the words, rituals, invocations of the spirits and other procedures a victory ceremony entailed. Anything less than four hours was considered insulting or uncivilized.

"I mean… I _guess,_ " Sokka said uncertainty, "but you can do it for the little victories too!" He mimed picking something up off the floor. "Oooh, I found a koku, high five!"

Zuko, still somewhat hesitantly, slapped his palm against Sokka's.

"See? Easy. Now you try," Sokka said nodding approvingly.

"Uh… I… have… defeated my father, brought peace and honor to my nation and… uh… saved the world. High five?"

Sokka gave him a high five.

"So, what do you think?" Sokka said with a grin.

"... I like it," Zuko said after a moment of contemplation. "It is simple and to the point. Also, it's vaguely reminiscent of hitting something, which I approve of on general principals."

"Hey! You just learned how to high five…" Sokka paused looking at Zuko expectantly.

"High… five?" Zuko said questioningly. He eventually remembered that he needed to have his hand in the air for this to work and did so.

Sokka gave him another high five.

They continued in this pattern for several minutes, each of them recalling something the other had done that was either heroic or otherwise worthy of praise and giving them a high five in response. The high fives grew in intensity and strength until the two of them were leaping into the air to high five, manic grins on their faces.

"What are you two idiots doing?" Suki said, leaning against the entranceway to the observation deck.

"I'm teaching Zuko how to high five!" Sokka said, then he resumed blowing on his hand as the force of the last one had nearly taken him off his feet.

Suki rolled her eyes fondly. "I already had to teach him how to shake. Do Fire-Nationers not know how to do _anything_ with their hands?"

"I know how to kill you in seventeen different ways with just three fingers," Zuko offered calmly.

"Bring it, flame-brain," Suki said, contradicting her tone with the small smile on her face.

"No!" Sokka was at Suki's side in a heartbeat, embracing her possessively. "You keep your _fingers_ , all _ten_ of them off my girlfriend." He turned to Suki with faux sad eyes. "He was ogling you when you took down the warden."

"What?! NO! I… I was… just… appreciating… the… martial aesthetic," Zuko sputtered unconvincingly as a slight flush crept up his neck and towards the functional side of his face.

"So, ogling then?" Suki said with a wry grin, now evenly matched with Sokka's.

"No… I… Alright, FINE. I was 'ogling,'" Zuko said making air-quotes with his fingers. " _Everyone_ was ogling. I was ogling, you were ogling, Haki was ogling. Ash and bone, even Lord Shinjo was ogling!" Sokka made a disgusted face at that, while Suki actually blushed slightly. "Spirits, if Mai had been there, _she_ might have been ogling, it was that impressive."

While Mai was not overly fond of public displays of affection, she had more than once over the last few days been found simply holding Ty Lee's hand in a quiet corner of the airship and had made a point of _not_ letting go of it when she realized she was being observed. Zuko was pleased that he had, thus far, not had to kill anyone in defense of his friend's honor and that her unusual preference was simply accepted as a matter of course.

"Can I just say that I did _not_ see that coming?" Sokka said genially. "I thought for sure that sexy hot numb- Ah, I mean _Ty Lee_ was hitting on me in Ba Sing Se?"

"Oh, I was!" the girl in question said from the hallway outside as she passed by, walking on her hands. "You're cute, and Mai is absolutely _adorable_ when she's jealous."

Sokka and Suki stared at her for a long moment tracking her hand-walking progress, then, as one, turned and looked questioningly at Zuko.

"She does that," he said with a shrug.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

The airship, which Sokka had insisted on re-christening "Princess Yue's Revenge," was a great deal slower, albeit more comfortable, than Zuko's war-balloon had been. But, thankfully, that time allowed Zuko and Hakoda, as nascent Fire-Lord and Chieftain of the Unicorn, to come to a diplomatic understanding, carefully coached, cajoled and figuratively dragged by the ear by Sokka and Mai.

There would be reparations of course; moneys and ships and lands would be turned over to the Unicorn at the war's successful completion. What would happen if they were unsuccessful was not touched on as both men knew that it would be irrelevant.

The dead no longer had such concerns after all.

In return for this arrangement, Hakoda had agreed to summon up the inland Unicorn clans and to also travel to the North to try and obtain the aid of his sister tribe. As a "neutral" party in the Sengoku, and a long-time enemy of the Fire-Nation in general, he would have a far greater chance of convincing the Crane and, eventually, the Crab and Mantis of the mostly subdued Earth-Kingdom, to join Zuko's side.

Hakoda, once he had decided that Zuko was worth stringing more than three words together at a time for, became most vocal in his ideas and suggestions for the conduct of the war. He quickly assembled a list of names that he had had contact with in the Earth-Kingdom who might be willing to "put their hands in the bonfire," as he put it. He said he would need to confer with the Avatar, but he imagined that with Aang's backing, many would be willing to strike back against Ozai.

The fact that Zuko had the backing of, and was the firebending sensei of, the Avatar seemed to be what truly tipped him off the fence and into Zuko's camp.

With the rough details settled and the problem of allies potentially solved, Zuko's mind immediately swung to the next and most immediate problem.

 _Katara is going to kill me,_ he thought staring out at the approaching landmass that contained both Western Air Temple… and his highly probable murder via pointy ice.

He said as much to Sokka.

"Pfft. Kill _you_?" Sokka said waving his hand dismissively. "I was the one who left that lame note about needing more meat."

"She was quite clear," Zuko said darkly. "I was not to go off without giving her detailed information as to my whereabouts. I did not do that. We were also gone for over a week. So, logically, I am going to be _double_ murdered."

"Nah. You'll be fine. She's going to be more murder-tastical at me. I've even got a joke lined up."

"...You cannot be serious."

"Yep! I'm going with 'But, Katara, I came home with the best meat of all! The meat of friendship and fatherhood.' Then 'whoosh,'" and here he mimed pulling away a curtain, "I reveal dad and Suki."

"...Pathetic."

"Bah. I'm telling you, you'll be fine. She probably won't even notice you're there," Sokka said confidently. "She'll be too busy screaming at me for 'going off with the enemy' and 'not leaving an adequate note,' and 'not taking an extra pair of socks.' She always gets like that."

"To be fair you really _should_ have brought an extra pair of socks. I understand that trench-foot is rather unpleasant as well as the fact that your foot-stink could easily be classified as a war crime," Zuko said shaking his head in amusement. "But, I am quite certain that she will blame me for the whole thing, ergo my double death."

"...I've got a koku that says she yells at me first," Sokka said with a grin.

"Not for long you don't," Zuko said, his face unconsciously mirroring Sokka's.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

After the airship had sunk into the canyon abutting the Air Temple, Sokka and Zuko rode the small landing platform down to the ground together. Zuko wasn't sure if the mild anxiety he felt was due to descending in the windy dark of twilight on a platform controlled by untrained former prisoners, or the fact that he could see Katara storming towards the landing area, her body language, even at a distance, indicating that she had murder on her mind.

Zuko snorted in a combination of amusement, irritation, and relief as Sokka leapt off the platform while it was still a few feet off the ground and headed towards his sister, a sheepish grin in place, obviously intending to tilt the odds in his favor by getting to her first.

"Hey, sis! Sorry about the-"

Katara didn't even break stride as she bent water out of her waterskin with a spinning motion and blasted Sokka to the side. Zuko didn't even make it three paces from the now-grounded landing platform before she started screaming at him.

"You absolute ASS!" she said, her eyes wide in fury. "You disappear with my _brother_ in the middle of the night, off to who knows where!? You could have gotten him killed! You could have gotten him maimed! What in the frosted left testicle of Kuruk were you thinking!?"

Zuko, as before, remained silent, attempting to take the verbal abuse with as much dignity and good grace as he could muster. Privately he wondered how she could yell at him about her brother after she had _just_ slapped him out of the way like an errant mosquito. But mostly he just bided his time, hoping that Hakoda, who Sokka had insisted stay behind so that his entrance could be a big surprise, would be down before he was either deaf, dead, or some combination of the two.

In the meantime, he contented himself with the fact that Sokka now owed him a koku.

At some point, Sokka had regained his feet and stomped his soggy and indignant way over in an attempt to head off Katara's rant. She, however, didn't even look at him as she bent the water out of his clothes and then back into his face with the barest flick of her wrist.

Despite the fact that most of her sentences seemed to be questions, at no point did she stop shouting long enough for Zuko to get an answer in, had he even been attempting to do so. She impugned his honor. She insulted the Fire-Nation and firebenders in general. At one point she seemed to suggest that the Sun herself was unworthy of shining in the sky. The rest of the Avatar's group gathered behind her as she berated him, taking in the scene as though it were a street corner drama. Aang was nervously hopping from foot to foot, looking as though he would very much like to mediate the dispute, but was more than a little flabbergasted at Katara's vehemence. Haru looked on curiously, twirling his horrible mustache. Toph was laughing so hard that she had fallen over while the Duke rubbed at his eyes blearily as the commotion had apparently woken him up.

 _I knew she'd be angry, but this is ridiculous,_ Zuko thought to himself, barely even able to hear his own thoughts over the noise she was making. _I assumed that she was just going to stab me and be done with it._

But a violently ranting Katara was apparently not a murderous Katara, and a few dozen rhetorical question/insults later he heard the platform hit the ground behind him and began to silently thank the spirits.

 _Finally. Now after Lord Shinjo has her attention…_

Katara, however, continued shouting, displaying a lung capacity normally reserved for airbenders and deep-sea divers.

 _Ash and bone, did he not come down?_ Zuko thought, restraining the urge to glance over his shoulder. _What in the ashpits are they playing at?_

Katara was in the middle of explaining, in list format, Zuko's many failings as a man, soldier, bender, and human being in general when Hakoda finally cut in.

"Ah, Prince Zuko? Do you think I might have a moment with my daughter?" He said, tactfully ignoring the screaming.

THAT got Katara's attention. She cut off, her mouth flapping like a fish, goggling at the sudden appearance of her father.

"Of course, Lord Shinjo," Zuko said turning and bowing politely, also pretending that he hadn't been treated to the most severe haranguing he had had in a very long time. "Good evening." Then, with a sidestep, he maneuvered his way around a still goggling Katara.

 _Thank you, good spirits,_ Zuko thought exhaling a relieved puff of air. _Moving on… next order of business._

He made his way over to that next task who was only now picking herself up off the ground where she had fallen over in hilarity. He glanced over his shoulder to confirm that Mai, Ty Lee, and Haki, who were also scheduled to come down on the second lift, had fallen in behind him.

"Oh, that was just fucking _perfect,_ " Toph said, still shaking slightly in laughter. "She's been pacing up and down for a _week!_ Oh spirits, was that good! Thank you so much, Hotpants."

 _Hot… pants?_

"Beifong Toph, these are my friends, Shosuro Mai and Ikoma Ty Lee, and my retainer Major Matsu Haki," Zuko said stiffly, attempting to retain any semblance of dignity after being screamed at for the better part of a quarter-hour and then summarily being referred to as "Hotpants."

"Yeah, we've _met_ ," Toph said in a tone that suggested that she would be rolling her eyes if that was a thing she could do.

"Ladies, Gentleman, _this_ is Beifong Toph, the greatest earthbender in the world," Zuko said, including the appellation as he had agreed to do in perpetuity as part of his earlier agreement with her.

The Fire-Nationers bowed, Toph waved back idly.

"Is there a _point_ to all this?" Toph said, amusement fading to boredom in record time.

"Indeed. You three will stand witness," Zuko said over his shoulder as he pulled a plain and unadorned wakizashi out of his belt. Toph cocked her head to the side at the sound.

"Beifong Toph, daughter of Earth, do you swear to be obstinate, stubborn, and faithful to your friends and those you deem worthy of your fealty?" Zuko said gravely.

"Uh… _yeah_? I guess."

"Do you swear to defend those who are worthy of help, provided of course that they are properly respectful?"

"Yes… where are you going with all th-"

"Do you swear, now and forever, to behave with honor and sincerity, never denying truth and justice from those who deserve it?"

"And liberal ass-kickings too. What the fuck is your poin-"

"Even if the mountains crumble to sand and the Sun grows cold?"

"Yes! Now answer _my_ gravel-chewing questions!"

"By my right as heir-apparent to Akodo's throne, I say that you… are _samurai._ Who would _dare_ to say otherwise?"

Toph suddenly found herself uncommonly speechless.

"So be it," Zuko intoned and, taking a knee, he gently slid the wakizashi into its new home in Toph's belt. "It is not fancy," he said in a lower voice, "and it is not legendary, but I got it to you the first minute I could. Besides, what mere blade could I find that would be half so impressive as you are?"

Toph stood frozen for a moment, then punched him rather fiercely in the shoulder.

"Ow," Zuko said quietly, "what was that for?"

"That's how I show affection," Toph said, now scrubbing fiercely at her eyes with that same arm.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

The next two weeks passed in a frenzy of activity.

Firstly, as the horde of former prisoners and guards disembarked from the airship, both Mai and Aang had insisted… that they turn right back around again.

They actually looked rather stunned to be in agreement with one another.

Mai was of the opinion that the location was far too obvious. Azula, while insane, was not stupid. Zuko's escape from the Boiling Rock in the company of two leaders of the failed invasion of the capital obviously spoke to the Avatar's involvement. This temple, while hidden, was both known of, proximate, and logical. She, therefore, reasoned that Azula would be there within a matter of days, if not hours.

Aang, on the other hand, simply refused (in that cheerful, slightly embarrassed to be making a fuss, way that he had) to have a military force, especially a Fire-Nation one, assembled on the notional graves of his people.

So, in deference to both logic and respect for the dead, Zuko had ordered (or just _requested_ in the case of those not under his command) everyone back on the boat. Within the hour the airship cast away from the Western Air Temple, a rumblingly pleased Appa resting on its top, an excitable airbender flitting from room to room in fascinated curiosity, a young man in a wheelchair going over the engine room with a blind metalbender in tow, and the Duke perched on a large crate "helping" Sokka pilot the ship.

Zuko did his best to avoid Katara during the trip, a task made more difficult by the somewhat cramped spaces of the airship and the subsequent narrowness of the hallways. Fortunately for him, he very rarely saw her out of her father's company, and she seemed unwilling to either murder or deafen Zuko in his presence. Zuko also noted, with no small amount of relief, that the man's attitude did not change towards him in the face of his daughter's ire. In fact, he seemed rather puzzled by the murderous glares she shot Zuko's way anytime he was in range.

Zuko was certain that that opinion would change rapidly and violently if Katara ever told her father _exactly_ why she was so angry.

It was a tense week skulking through corridors, avoiding a still explosively angry Katara, meeting with his newest officers, observing the functioning of the airship. He had several meetings with Sokka and the wheelchair-bound Teo as to the ship's design and capabilities and several more briefs from Mai as she compiled the vast quantity of intelligence she had managed to learn or steal during her short stint as a double agent.

All in all, Zuko found his schedule relatively full for the duration of the trip, a situation which would only intensify when they arrived on the other side of the Yang-Chen straights and found the encampment of soldiers that Rin and Bo had assembled.

The two Uesugi's had spent the whole of the last season roving up and down the colonies distributing copies of Zuko's declaration to any and every samurai, lord, and peasant they could find. As such Rin was pleased to report that the Colonies were now, in their entirety, in open rebellion.

Zuko just wished that that meant they were all on his side.

Sengoku was a risky move in the internecine warfare that cropped up among the noble houses of the Fire-Nation. By declaring Ozai unfit for the role of supreme overlord, Zuko had essentially given every vassal in the nation the opportunity to ignore their normally iron-clad oaths of fealty and do as they desired. Every general, minor lord or popular samurai with any ambition, which had long been held in check by their honor, or their fear of reprisal, now felt as though they had a chance to grab real and lasting power in the rapidly growing chaos. Old feuds between rival houses, long put aside against the demands of the hundred-year-war, were now being prosecuted with a malicious intensity. It was rapidly turning into a free-for-all, both in the Colonies and, to a lesser extent, in the homeland.

But Zuko _excelled_ at free-for-alls.

Zuko was enormously surprised by the size of the encampment as the airship parked itself overhead. All of the Uesugi family was in attendance of course, but their black and white banners, depicting two swallow-falcons in flight, flapped proudly in the breeze alongside those of the Date, the Hojo, and the Hattori.

The entire northern half of the Colonies.

In addition, there were at least two ashigaru battalions worth of peasants who had, as Rin put it, "just turned up." Zuko had apparently been regarded as something of a folk hero in the colonies even _before_ "The Adventures of the Prince of Fire" had come out.

There were no standards there, just Uesugi Bo, Kyoshi perched on her hip, shouting, and waving her arms, attempting to sort the skilled laborers from the bunch and organize the remainder into something resembling a military structure.

While the size of those two groups was a pleasant surprise, they were nothing compared to the feelings of awe, pride, and downright shock the Zuko felt as he disembarked to a concussive roar from the other half of the camp.

A roar which sounded simultaneously from nearly thirty-thousand throats behind a single black banner displaying a gold Fire-Nation flame and a number attached to the top of the standard pole.

An entire _Legion._

All of them, the entire twenty-thousand, now joined by half again their number of other deserters, had defected, their command structure intact, on mass to Zuko's side.

The 501st; the very legion that Zuko had been banished because of.

As Mai would tell him later, the plan that would have seen them sacrificed for very little gain had been discarded after Zuko had been banished, and stories of his words had traveled through the lines of unofficial communication to the soldiers in question. Now they were no longer the mass of raw recruits that they had been six years ago, but a highly touted veteran fighting force that had, since their very first deployment, privately gone by the nickname "Zuko's Fist."

But in the moment Zuko was simply stunned, half-certain that he had fallen asleep at his desk in the airship. Eye wide, he strode directly to the soldier holding the banner and after a moment of still shocked silence, he bowed double, right fist in left hand.

When he rose from his bow, he found the entire Legion bowing back. In a rush, he reached over and grabbed the battle standard from the soldier in front of him.

"HONOR before REASON!" he roared, hoisting the banner into the air.

"DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR!" the Legion roared back, then dissolved into unorganized cheering.

 _I… I might actually pull this off,_ Zuko thought, grinning widely as he handed the standard back and dismissed the soldiers.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Zuko thought he had been busy before, but he was consistently forced to redefine that term on a regular basis. Soldiers and civilians continued to trickle into the camp, sometimes in ones and twos, sometimes in whole platoons. Even simple delegation took time as personal skills were evaluated, tasks assigned, orders written, new intelligence briefs received from both Jee and Mai, and ensuing strategy debated and planned.

Despite all of that he still found time to train Aang, who's strength and confidence seemed to grow in leaps and bounds, even as the Duke watched them. He found time to play Go with Toph and to ask her input on the future negotiations with the remnants of the Earth-Kingdom. He even found time to begin sparring with Sokka who was under the impression that he spent too much time "brooding." While Sokka wasn't really on Zuko's level he found the sparring actually fun even if it was watched, again, by a still silent the Duke and a less silent Hakoda.

Despite the Chieftain's earlier, and very familiar, anger, Hakoda actually seemed to warm to Zuko over time. Perhaps he felt that a man who could inspire this much loyalty in troops he'd never even met was worth some respect. Perhaps Sokka's charisma, which Zuko was still at a loss to explain, won him over. Perhaps he decided that _Katara_ seemed angry enough for the both of them. Whatever the reason he asked to join the sparring session a mere three days after their arrival.

He was actually rather good, his style of combat completely different than his son's, and what Zuko was sure his mother would have referred to as "pit fighting." It was simple, brutal and, most importantly highly effective. Hakoda had been fighting a better armed and armored military force for over a decade and his style spoke to that as plainly as though it were written on his forehead. As dictated by his honor Zuko fought them both, individually or together, without his bending, and was surprised and pleased with both of their adaptation and ingenuity. Within a few more days Hakoda had entirely lost his potent glower and became friendly, remarking that Zuko was a "good kid."

Whatever that was supposed to me.

The downside to this friendship became apparent soon, however. One night after a spar, Hakoda joined them at the Avatar's campfire and slapped Zuko on the back genially. And then _Katara_ looked at Zuko as though she had caught him going through her underthings. She was rapidly approaching a breaking point and Zuko did his best not to wince in contemplation of the explosion that would be, _had to be_ , coming.

But, in spite of all the changes and new additions, the Avatar's camp remained remarkably unchanged. Aang still slept on Appa's tail and Toph still made herself a stone tent every night. Sokka still spent a lot of time either eating or polishing his dazzling array of weapons, although he now did so with Suki, often in his lap, and his father chatting amiably with the both of them. Mai and Ty Lee joined the evening dinner circle, once again at Aang's, and then quickly both Aang and Ty Lee's, insistence. Shockingly Katara seemed to have little to no problem feeding either of them, while Zuko still was forced to wait until Katara was done before preparing his own meal.

Wait silently, now watched by a still very confused Hakoda, who's ice-blue eyes swept from Zuko to his daughter as though trying to figure out a rather difficult puzzle.

While morale was sky-high throughout the rest of the camp Zuko could feel the tension that boiled along Katara's veins as surely as he could feel every spark of flame.

There would be an explosion soon, and he had no idea how to stop it.

* * *

 **A/N:** **Good morning human beings and welcome to the end of this group of words assembled in a particular order creating both comedy, drama, and a few feels. I hope you enjoyed it!**

 **But if** _ **not**_ **… well, you know the deal. Comment, comment, comment, comment.**

 **META** **D-d-d-d-drop the** **BITS** **(/done in the style of dubstep base dropping)**

 **Shinjo Hakoda:** **Let's take a moment to talk about Hakoda, yes? I admit that I have problems with him, just little ones, and again this is entirely me thinking too much about the dynamics of a 10-year-old cartoon "intended" for a younger audience.**

 **He just…** _ **leaves.**_ **His wife gets murdered, and he just takes all the warriors of the tribe and leaves? How does that make any sense? Your village gets attacked and your next step is to leave them right where they are, and then take all of the defenses away? Wouldn't it have been better to take them someplace that the FN** _ **didn't**_ **know about? Maybe someplace closer where you could check in on them from time to time?**

 **So, given this information, I guess that Hakoda can be a little bit rash, and a whole lot vengeful. Or at least, he was. I imagine that he has cooled off (ha, funny cause he's water-tribe, see?) over the last few years. But again, this initial leaving pisses me right the hell off, and I imagine that it pisses Sokka off a fair amount as well.  
**

 **The Highest of Fives:** **Comedy. Gold! (/high fives** _ **you**_ **, the reader, through the internet)**

 **Katara's Deal:** **Let's take another moment to appreciate the sheer amount of emotions that I have crammed into poor Katara here, shall we? Cheating(reads as: treacherous) Ex-boyfriend shows up and becomes the teacher of best-friend/surrogate-son. Ex-boyfriend bonds with said son. Ex-boyfriend disappears in the middle of the night with brother, cue worry, for** _ **both**_ **of them. Ex returns, is screamed at, then it is revealed that Ex is largely responsible for the rescuing of her father and her brother's girlfriend. Then, very rapidly, her entire situation is over-turned. She is moved into the center of a FN war-camp, she is exposed, once again, to a large group of people who think her Ex is the coolest dude ever, she discovers (because Mai is so DONE with being subtle/living a lie) that her Ex was NOT lying about "the other girl" not being into him. All of this while trying NOT to explode at him, as that would raise very unfortunate questions from her father that she would have to explain.**

 **There WILL be a breaking point.**

 **Transitions and the things we miss:** **So, I have to admit that this chapter is nowhere near as thrilling as the last two. Two high drama, high emotion pieces right there. I had hoped to put some space in between the two of them, but really nothing occurred to me. Discussion of new(old) firebending? Katara continues to ignore Zuko, but in a more pointed way? Just didn't spark anything.**

 _ **This**_ **chapter, by contrast, is all about transitions, about moving the gamepieces to the board, consolidating into a new set of circumstances. But in doing so there are a few things that we miss. Most notably is the Zuko V Azula rematch of doom on top of the airships. Awesome fight scene, and** _ **exactly**_ **the kind of thing that Mai is trying to keep Zuko from doing. He already threw himself into the danger the once, and she, being super-smart and concerned for his safety, is not going to let him do it again if she can help it.**

 **Well, that's all I can think of. You've done really well, reader, and I am proud of you.  
**

 **A huge thank you, everyone who comments, even you guest anonymous guys who I would LOVE to respond back to, but can't. You, all of you, have made this a great way to spend my free time!**

 **Thanks again!**

 **.**

 **.**

 **NEXT WEEK on a very special "Avatar: The Last Dragon"...**

 **There are a** _ **series**_ **of explosions, with entirely unexpected results.**

 **TUNE IN. Same Zuko time, Same Zuko channel!**

 **Original post date: 10 February 2019**


	12. The Broken Breath

**A/N:** **The Following is Rated U; for unhealthy.**

 **It corresponds, chronologically, with the beginning of S3E16 "The Southern Raiders."**

 **Reader discretion is advised. (seriously)**

* * *

Chapter 12 "The Broken Breath"

* * *

 **Early Summer, year 12 in the reign of Fire-Lord Ozai**

"Unicorn-super-slic- OW!"

Zuko fought, with very little success, to keep amusement from his face as Sokka lay on the ground rubbing his head and cursing most colorfully.

"And _this_ is why we're not using live blades," he said, sitting on his haunches next to Sokka. "Unless you find the threat of permanent dismemberment... _motivational_?"

It _was_ of course, but while Zuko's tutors had been confident in their ability to only _wound_ him in a non-permanent manner, Zuko was not convinced that the risk was worth the reward in this instance. He had even begun to insist that he and Sokka wear the somewhat rigid training armor so that the Unicorn man could begin to get used to its restrictive nature.

He certainly wasn't letting Sokka anywhere near a battlefield without _some_ sort of armor.

"How do you keep _doing_ that?" Sokka grumbled, still rubbing at his head. This was no less than the seventh time that Zuko had, with less than full force, brought his shinai down on Sokka's head in the last half hour.

Zuko sighed slightly, casting his eye around the blackened patch of earth that was the training circle, searching for a tactful way of phrasing the answer.

He finally settled on, "You are… predictable."

Instead of being less insulted by this unusual attempt at tact on Zuko's part, Sokka instead looked about as scandalized as he might have had Zuko just suggested that he liked to perform sex acts on koala-sheep.

"I… am… NOT!"

Zuko blinked at him incredulously. "You _are_."

"NOT!"

"You… what are you, five?" Zuko said, a grin forcing its way on to his face.

"I am _not_ predictable," Sokka said, crossing his arms over his chest in mock sulk, obviously hamming it up slightly in the face of Zuko's amusement. "I am _wily._ Madcap. Surprising. _Improvisational_ even!"

"Perhaps in other areas," Zuko said, "but not in kenjutsu."

"How am I 'predictable,'" Sokka asked, indicating his skepticism with air quotes.

"You mean other than the fact that you _insist_ on shouting out attack names?" Zuko shrugged. "Your technique is a blending of the Unicorn style, which is adapted for the use of many disparate weapons, and then heavily influenced by Lord Ikoma, who uses a modification of the Mantis's single-handed Jian style. Jian-style favors long lunging strikes, and requires you to move in straight lines, back and forth. Also…" As Zuko continued giving his tactical analysis, dissecting Sokka's technique, the Unicorn's jaw dropped lower and lower. "... which is why your top quadrant is mostly unguarded. I recommend a regimen of calf strengthening exercises to really give you that burst of speed you need," Zuko concluded.

"So… I'm terrible. That's what you're saying?" Sokka said.

"Did I _say_ you were terrible? Do you think I would dishonor our friendship by not telling you if that were so? If you _were_ 'terrible' I am certain that Lord Ikoma would have never bothered with you, and _we_ would not be sparring. I would have simply set you a training regimen and then offered critique… from over there." He pointed at the flat rock that currently only held the Duke, and would have normally held Hakoda as well, had he not left to go begin negotiating with his northern brethren the previous evening.

"Then why can you… you know… bonk me over the head every freezing time?"

"Because I've been fighting with swords since I was seven? I've had access to some of the finest trainers and sword masters in the world? I practice every day, for several hours?"

"Yeah, but… _every_ time?" Sokka said, his shoulders sagging. "Maybe I'm just too far behind. Maybe I should just give it up."

"You want to give up?" Zuko said quietly, doing his best to contain the scorn that rose in him.

"Well, it's like your _LEADERSHIP_ says," Sokka said his eyes on the ground, "'don't fight if you know you can't win."

 _Spirits, what is it with Shinjos and that ONE line,_ Zuko thought, rolling his eye. _This isn't the same thing._

"Look, _Hawk_ , you're going to fail a lot before things eventually work out…"

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" Sokka said, glancing at Zuko in mild incredulity.

"Even though you will probably fail, over and over and over and over again…"

"Seriously. Not helping."

"...you have to get back UP and _try again._ Every time. Being bad at something, is just the first step towards being _better_ at something, and so you cannot quit out of the _fear_ of failure. _Never_ give up without a fight. Honor demands nothing less."

Sokka stared at him for a moment, his face slowly curling into a genuine smile.

"That… is… so COOL! You have GOT to teach me how to do stuff like that."

"I thought that that was why we have been sparr-"

"No, not _that_ ," Sokka said waving his hand dismissively. "How to be all melodramatic and inspiring like that! The ladies LOVE that broody crap."

"... Perhaps I hit you on the head one too many times?" Zuko said, snorting in amusement.

"No, he's always like that," Suki said from behind him.

Zuko rose from his crouch and took a long, entirely non-threatening, step away from Sokka.

"Ms. Suzuki," he said with a slight bow.

Suki did not bow back. She only glared at him overtop of a smirk that came absolutely nowhere close to her eyes. Sokka glanced back and forth between the two of them in puzzlement as Zuko tried to figure out if he had done something recently that would provoke the threat he could feel emanating from her.

 _She's seen us spar before. It can't be that. Maybe…_

"You're not… _scared_ of my girlfriend… are you?" Sokka asked suddenly, his puzzlement dissolving into a wry teasing grin.

"What? NO," Zuko snapped, his eye darting back to Sokka.

There was a long, still very tense, pause as the three of them eyed one another intermittently.

"...You two should spar," Sokka said. "Work out… whatever _this_ is."

Zuko's glare turned to skepticism. "You want me to spar with your-"

"I don't see why not," Suki said quietly, a faint note of derision in her voice. "Unless, of course… you _are_ afraid?"

Zuko's yellow eye snapped back to her and narrowed.

"Uh… Suki?" Sokka began, now looking far more worried than amused. "Maybe you don't want to provoke-"

"Perhaps you would like me to tie one of my arms behind my back first?" Zuko said with a sneer, any and all thoughts of diffusing the situation evaporating at the slight to his honor. "As I recall, the _last time_ we fought I managed _both of you_ at the same time. Perhaps, I should be _blindfolded_ as well? You _have_ been _relaxing_ in prison, and I would _hate_ to take advantage of your… _numerous_ defeats."

Now Suki's smirk was gone entirely, her eyes wide in outrage.

"Ooooo-kay. So... please don't kill one another?" Sokka said hopefully as he scrambled to his feet and out of their way.

"No promises," Suki snarled, pulling out the pair of iron tessen she had appropriated from the airship's armsroom.

Zuko's only response to that was to inhale deeply… and exhale a burst of fire from his nose.

Suki opened her tessen with a snap and took a stance as Zuko brought his shinai up, his posture balanced, and the two of them brought the entirety of their focus to bear on one another.

They stood there, still, for a long moment, a silent battle of wills, watching one another silently, searching for the slightest hint of movement, the slightest hint of weakness.

Zuko knew perfectly well that she would not be the first to attack, no matter how mysteriously angry she seemed. The style of the Kyoshi Warriors was primarily defensive, and she would be able to seize control of the battle easily and decisively if his first strike was less than perfect. So, he waited, and he watched.

Specifically, he watched her breathe.

Inhale… and exhale…

Inhale… and exhale…

Inhale... and… at the end of her exhale, just before she inhaled again, Zuko sprang forward with a loud shout.

The tactic worked, and as his shinai met her fans, her response was just a hair slower than it might have been, her balance just the smallest bit unsettled.

Which was all Zuko needed.

A rhythm was established. Stroke and counter-stroke. Parry and block. Roll and leap. Roaring shout and teeth-gritted silence. Zuko let his strikes fall heavy, always with a shout, baiting her into a counter-maneuver, but then moving away as she began, just at the wrong moment, disrupting her flow, unsettling her mind, breaking her focus.

Zuko was impressed to find that he couldn't pull any punches. She was very very good.

Despite his earlier taunts, her time in prison had obviously had little to no detrimental impact on her abilities. It was apparent that she was a remarkable fighter, and as the fight went on, and he began to truly enjoy himself, Zuko's face slowly transformed from normal battle stoicism and into the terrifying grin that his family was infamous for.

Suki showed her teeth as well, face red in anger and frustration.

The true turning point came when Zuko executed the end of the "Sunshine Behind the Rain" gambit he had been employing.

When he shouted… but did not strike.

And Suki flinched, minutely, in anticipation of a strike that never came. In that moment, her focus was nearly destroyed and Zuko truly began his assault.

He forced her to give ground, backwards, step by step, matching her defensive rolls with side-steps and lunges and driving her back, back, _back,_ away from the sparring circle and into the rocky field just beyond the encampment. Suki was forced to block a powerful overhead strike with both her tessen just as her back bumped up against a large piece of rubble, and Zuko brought every ounce of his superior height and weight down upon her, his face looming in hers in a near-feral grin, his shinai's "blade" pressing towards her neck.

"Yield or be _destroyed_ , Kyoshi Warri-" Zuko began, but cut himself off, his body and mind going still as he suddenly caught a glimpse of something pale and pointy out of the corner of his eye.

He backed away from Suki slowly, his single eye on the long shard of _ice_ that followed him, its point far _far_ too close to his only eye for comfort.

And there, in the unfocused middle distance, was Katara, copying his steps and moving the hovering ice forward.

 _Well… shit._

The tension, now covering the whole of the training yard like a thick blanket, only increased as Katara continued to stare her death glare at him, everything from her unbound hair to the position of her feet somehow radiating fury.

Someone, somewhere, in a space that wasn't relevant to the area between Zuko and Katara, an area that only had room for silence and rage, inhaled sharply. To speak most likely.

But Zuko had been waiting for any break in that brittle tension. He dropped his shinai and, with a spinning block and a strike of fire, he smashed the icy projectile to shards. With that done, he executed a crisp half-left face and bowed respectfully to Suki.

That accomplished, he turned around and began to walk away.

"Coward," Katara snarled behind him.

Unbidden his feet stopped him, and smoke began to wisp out between the fingers of his clenched fists.

 _How DARE she! Destroy her!_

But that was the _other_ voice, the one Sozin had written of. Zuko recognized it now. It was different than his own anger, foreign and invasive, black and vile next to the bright red ember that was _his_ anger. His time on Tayoshima had taught him that much at least and, if for no other reason than that, it made his alliance with Aang worth it.

He crushed the thing _mercilessly_.

 _I am NOT doing this,_ he thought, gritting his teeth. _She… she is NOT here, she did not SAY anything, and I am NOT DOING THIS._

So, Zuko stalked away, leaving the ire of the woman he still loved behind him…

...but Katara _followed_ , her angry, now ranting, voice ringing in his ears.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

She followed him back to his tent, and inside, where he'd hoped that he would be safe.

Zuko had found that she was impossible to ignore, even at the best of times. Even when she wasn't making an effort to draw his attention, he could practically feel his eye being tugged, as if by magnetism, towards the sight of her. He'd spent a great deal of time diverting that eye, down to the dirt at her feet, to a shrub just over her shoulder, to… just… _anything._ Anything that wasn't her.

He couldn't look at her, didn't _deserve_ to look at her.

But not looking at her was flatly impossible when she wouldn't leave him alone.

So, he looked down at her feet as she screamed at him, his fists clenched so hard that his knuckles would pop occasionally. He tried to let her words simply flow over him, tried to find zanshin, tried to distract himself by reciting his current theoretical war strategy.

 _The 501st will move from Iyo to Sanuki. Taro will bring the fleet into Hyuga,_ he recited, going over names, plans, and tactical considerations. _Mimasaki will be problematic because it is both landlocked and protected by Shiro Jite. We will have to ensure that all units are prepared for a siege and, with luck, we may have earthbender support by then and-_

"...you never even LOVED ME! You just _said_ that so…"

Thought was suddenly _gone_ as those words filtered in through his mismatched ears _._ Vanished. Blank. Silent. Had she just said…

Zuko didn't remember moving, didn't consciously summon the roar that burst from his lips as he grabbed Katara, her eyes suddenly as wide as dinner plates, by the shoulders and he certainly didn't intend to drive her backwards and pin her to the solid rock wall that made up the back of his tent.

"You… don't… _SAY_ THAT TO ME!" he roared, his yellow eye locked on her blue-grey pair for the first time in what felt like an eternity. "I took the only good thing I EVER had and DESTROYED IT! Ripped it into tiny pieces! Turned my back on it… for my FUCKING PEOPLE!" He was suddenly panting as though he had just run a dozen miles. "You… you don't… _say_ that to me."

Katara looked entirely astonished.

 _Fuck._

Shoulders slumped and eye back on the floor, Zuko backed away from her. He inhaled deeply, gathering and reassembling himself.

"We are done talking," he said quietly. Then he bowed and turned to leave his tent.

He _tried_ to anyway.

His eye locked on the dirt, his mind awash in the usual litany of shame and recrimination, he didn't hear the pop of a waterskin coming uncorked. Didn't even _see_ the gout of water that arced over his shoulder to hit him under the chin and drive him back into the wall he'd pinned Katara to a moment before.

The next thing he really registered was the absolutely _livid_ face of Shinjo Katara in his.

"We are DONE when I SAY we're done!" she roared at him.

And then, suddenly, against all logic, reason, good sense, and righteous conduct…

...she was _kissing_ him.

The smallest unit of time Zuko could conceive of was the bare split second it took for him to bend flame into the palm of his hand. There was only the tiniest gap imaginable between the thinking and the doing in that long and well-practiced maneuver.

His shock, his surprise, and his determination to extricate himself from Katara… lasted an even _smaller_ amount of time than that.

This wasn't like before.

Before had been passionate and sweet, heated kisses that gave him happiness, wonder, _love._

THIS wasn't _anything_ like that.

Katara was _furious_ , and he could practically taste it, acrid and electric on her tongue.

Gone were the sighs, the moans, the gentle whispers.

Now there was snarling and cursing and a pair of furious panting growls.

Gone were the gentle caresses and tender hands.

Now there was pulling and scratching and yanking, a duel, but with an entirely different motive.

They were still fighting, still at war, still in the midst of some inexplicable yet familiar battle.

Zuko loved battle too.

Zuko's training armor flew off him, the leather straps that held it together severed in seconds by searching streams of water. Distracted by that effort, Katara couldn't stop Zuko from driving her backwards, away from the wall, eventually backing her against his writing desk. Zuko picked her up like she was weightless and roughly sat her down there after clearing the surface with a sweep of his arm, more pieces of his armor falling away as he did so.

Her kimono had already become loose in the initial onslaught and Zuko, his lips finally leaving hers, summoned the tiniest, coldest lick of flame imaginable, from his tongue of all places, and severed one of the bands that made up her sarashi. The whole thing unraveled, and he buried his face in her breasts, licking and sucking and nipping at her in still remembered sensitive places. She took the opportunity to rip Roku's crown out of his topknot and fling it across the tent with a snarl, allowing his hair to spill down his shoulders as he snarled back in surprise. In retaliation he grabbed at her hips and, with an easy, tearing, pulling, motion, he shredded her underwear in his hands revealing the whole of her body to him.

And made him hesitate… his eye wide… his brain trying desperately to catch up to the present, to reestablish any modicum of control.

 _I… we… SHE… this… I can't… don't… I…_

Katara grabbed ahold of the hair at the nape of his neck and yanked his head up, his eye back to hers, snarling at him furiously. There were no words in the noise she made, just a desperate animal cry of fury, and… _need._

 _Need_ which Zuko found echoed in his own throat in a deeper basso harmony as, after a moment of angry kisses and fumbling below his belt, he thrust _into_ her.

 _This_ was not lovemaking.

Not fornication. Not coitus. Not even just _sex_.

This was battle and rage and passion and grief and utter terrible gut-wrenching _longing_ all mixed into one great untidy mess.

 _This_ , for lack of a better word, was _fucking._

Whatever else it was, it was also a constant struggle for dominance and control. Zuko slamming into Katara with rapidly increasing force. Katara biting Zuko's shoulder so hard that blood began to trickle down his arm. Zuko growling in wordless breaths in Katara's ear as she dragged her nails across his back over and over again.

In a move that Zuko still found familiar, Katara changed the flow of battle, asserting control by gripping him tightly with her thighs and, with an impressive display of abdominal strength, flipping herself on top of him without severing their connection or altering their rhythm in the slightest.

This was a maneuver conceived, practiced, and perfected on green silk sheets and a mattress in Ba Sing Se.

It was _not_ , however, designed with Zuko's writing desk in mind, and all four of its legs snapped violently as Katara slammed on to Zuko and they both went crashing down.

If either one even noticed, it was readily apparent that neither one cared.

Zuko could suddenly feel the end approaching for him and swore violently in denial. _He_ wasn't going first. That, somehow, would be letting Katara win, and, quite frankly, he was _done_ letting her win. She had started this mess and now, by all the spirits, _he_ would be the one to finish it. The parts of his mind that were not in complete and astonished shut-down mode spun into action, recalling angles and patterns of attack that had worked before, a seeming lifetime ago, on green silk. He used them again now, but _harder,_ with more force than he would have normally dared, his hands fastened to Katara's hips, controlling her movements even as she fought to establish the natural dominance of the high ground.

A small part of him wished that she would tell him to stop, that it was too much, that she couldn't take anymore.

But she never did. And her eyes, still locked on his, practically screamed at him in challenge.

Eyes that, despite that challenge, soon rolled up into her head as she orgasmed.

Victory, such as it was, was his, and he followed after her a heartbeat later.

The rhythm having crescendoed and subsided into the finale, Katara did so as well, collapsing on top of him and laying still, panting for a few brief moments.

Zuko lay still as well, eye unfocused on the roof of his tent, taking in every detail of the situation that he could. The smell of her, sea spray and flowers, now mixed with the cloying smells of blood, sweat, and sex, he cataloged and burned into his brain. The feel of her skin under his hands, soft and smooth, belying the muscles of a master bender underneath, he recorded as well as he could, knowing that this… _madness_ , this _miracle_ , would never happen again.

The feelings inside him were… different. Calmer. Smoother. Less jagged.

Almost… _happy._

But then, without warning, Katara rose from him. She re-tied her kimono, miraculously undamaged in the struggle, and left his tent without a backwards glance.

Zuko lay there a long time; bruised, bleeding, mostly naked, and spread-eagled in the center of his now devastated tent. Books and papers covered the dirt floor around his ruined desk, intermixed with the scattered pieces of his training armor that was now probably in desperate need of repair, if not outright replacement

He lay there, his inner confusion matched by the entirely baffled look on his half a face.

"I am… _so_ confused," he said to the empty tent.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Katara confused him.

She had _always_ confused him. From the very first time he had met her she had been confusing; her poise and obvious pride at odds with her humble surroundings, a tiny village in the South Pole.

That said, Zuko had become a master at not letting things like that, confusing people, and situations without readily apparent practical solutions, interfere with his training.

A part of him was even convinced that, despite the evidence that was the destroyed inside of his tent, he had somehow _imagined_ the whole thing. It was impossible.

 _There is no way that she… that Katara would…_

 _Focus, damnit._

So, again, he threw the whole swampy fetid mess into the back of his mind and resumed watching Aang work through yet another firebending sequence.

Training the Avatar every day was no longer anywhere close to being a burden.

Training Aang was an _escape_.

"No," Zuko said, frowning in thought as he watched Aang. "You need to move your arms differently. Like…" he paged through the many scrolls that they had copied from the High Temple of the Sun-Warriors, "...this one," he finished, holding out the page for inspection.

" _Kanashimi_?" Aang said, examining the page. "Grief? Why grief? I thought this was more of a _happy_ form? At least… I was _trying_ for it to be."

"It is, but when you reach _this_ point-" Zuko tapped the page holding the sequence Aang was trying to learn- "you have a look of… rather profound sadness." He looked back up at Aang. " _Use_ that. Don't try to make it into something it isn't. That is the lesson we both learned, remember?" He set the papers aside and moved into the center of the training circle.

Leap. _Joy._ Kick. _Excitement._ Spin and punch. _Sorrow._ Red flames spun and burst around him, more powerful than they had been before the lesson of Taiyoshima.

"Like that," Zuko said after finishing. "Again. Remember to breathe."

"I'm always impressed at how well you see things like that," Aang said, smiling genuinely. "No offense, but when we first met, I'd never have guessed that you were overly empathetic."

Zuko shrugged. "I know grief. Before, I would have simply used it to make myself more angry. Now…" he shrugged again.

"Yes, I can see that," Aang said. "Losing everything that you had… well… I _get_ that. But you can't give in to anger, that doesn't-"

"I do not require another sermon, Togashi Aang," Zuko said, cutting him off bluntly, if not as unkindly as he once might have. "I will do what I must, _feel_ what I must. _You_ would do well to remember that we are not ALL Air-Nomads. I am Lion, not Dragon."

"True," Aang said holding his hands up placatingly. "But you shouldn't allow yourself to be overcome by the loss of a _thing._ That way lies… well you'd say 'dishonor.'"

"And _you_ would say… well, probably something rather sanctimonious that I would find very irritating."

"But I _didn't._ See? Learning," Aang said with a grin.

Zuko rolled his eye and did his best to not appear too amused.

"But," Aang continued, barreling forwards anyway, "as you _did_ say that you wanted to hear more about my people, I _will_ point out that one of the most basic tenants of Air-Nomad philosophy is to never become so attached to simple objects, possessions, and places. That's why we're _nomads,_ always ready to drop everything and move along, like the wind."

"I was not grieving a _thing_ , Aang," Zuko said, looking away.

"Well, alright, but I would say that complex concepts, like your Nation, and your people, not a person specifically, but a sort of general conceptual _people_ , counts too. My own people…" his smile grew heartbreakingly sad, "… I miss them terribly, and that is one of the biggest obstacles to my own enlightenment."

Zuko looked back to Aang for a long moment. He hadn't been thinking about his people at all.

He had been thinking about Ping.

"What?" Aang said cocking his head to the side in question.

"I wasn't…" Zuko began, but trailed off with a sigh.

 _Do I want to talk with him about this?_ He thought. _I suppose I have a duty as his sensei, now that we actually know how firebending works._

"There was… a boy," Zuko said aloud, his face darkening into the unconscious scowl that he always wore when he was trying to maintain his stoicism.

Aang just looked at him blankly.

"He… _died,_ " Zuko continued. "He died, and it was my fault."

"Zuko, I'm sure that it wasn't y-"

"I had a responsibility to him," Zuko said, mostly to himself at this point. "I had a duty to ensure his safety. I failed. He died." He looked back to Aang, "let us hope that I take better care of my _current_ student."

"You were teaching someone else firebending?" Aang asked.

"No. I was teaching him… everything else." Zuko shook his head and turned away from Aang for a moment to gather himself, and found the Duke, once again, silently watching.

Except he wasn't _really_ watching. His eyes had gone unfocused slightly, and his tongue was caught between his teeth in apparent concentration.

 _Heh,_ Zuko thought in bitter amusement, _he almost looks like Ping when he was trying to learn his… letters…_

Trying to learn his…

And then, just at the edge of his senses, Zuko felt it, _saw_ it. A tiny flash, somewhere in the depths of his dead eye.

A tiny _red_ spark…

The Duke seemed to come back to himself, shaking his head, and he suddenly became aware of Zuko's attention, his face warping in surprise and horror.

Then he turned and ran. Ran so fast his too large helmet clattered to the ground and was abandoned.

"What do you suppose-" Aang began.

But Zuko didn't even hear him, he just took off after the boy.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

The Duke was, unsurprisingly for a child-soldier, very quick on his feet. As such, he wove his panicked way through the varied obstacles of the war camp far faster than Zuko ever could, making his way into the camp's center.

To the Avatar's cookfire, and behind _Katara_ , before Zuko could stop him.

Zuko skidded to a halt as her grey-blue eyes, full of surprised concern for the Duke, moved from the small boy and on to Zuko, widening in fury at whatever terrible thing she assumed Zuko had done to the boy.

She opened her mouth to begin shouting…

… and snapped it shut as Aang descended from the sky, landing and snapping his glider closed quickly.

"What was _that_ all about?" he asked, looking from Zuko to the Duke.

Zuko glanced between the two of them than re-settled on the Duke.

"Boy?" he said softly as he dropped to one knee. "Come here."

The Duke, still hiding his face in Katara's kimono, shook his head and Katara inhaled to begin telling Zuko to leave him alone. Zuko glanced back to her and somehow managed to silence her with a look.

"It's… alright," Zuko said, trying to sound kind and calming which, to be fair, were not his strong suits, as he refocused on the boy. "We… we can fix this, alright?"

The Duke peeked at him slightly.

 _The boy was an Earth-Kingdom rebel. He probably thinks that…_

"There is _nothing_ to be ashamed of," Zuko said, still quietly but now with a restrained undercurrent of fury. "No one _here_ is going to think any less of you. I swear. Come here."

Katara and Aang now both looked confused.

The Duke, his breath shuddering, rubbed at his eyes a little bit and then, slowly, like a wild animal being coaxed forward with food, moved towards Zuko.

"Put your hands out. Like this." Zuko cupped his hands as though he were holding a bowl of broth, about to drink some. The Duke copied him, closing his eyes as Katara looked on, her face twisted in both annoyance and confusion.

Aang, on the other hand, had his mouth open in a surprised "o" of recognition.

"In… and out…" Zuko said quietly, in time with his breathing. "In… and out…"

And there, suddenly, in between both of their hands, was a ball of red flame.

"In… and out… In… and out… In," then Zuko dropped his hands as he next said, "…and out."

The flame shrunk drastically in size and changed color to a more normal orange-yellow…

…but it _remained_ , floating in between the Duke's outstretched hands.

The Duke remained like that for a long time, his breathing rhythmic, the flame pulsing with it, his face like a man seeing the Sun for the first time in months. Aang looked on, his face beaming with wonder and jubilation.

Katara, on the other hand, looked like someone had just slapped her across the face.

The Duke's eyes eventually slid open and then widened in amazement and horror at the flames in his hands. Zuko quickly seized and banished them before they could spin out of control.

"Tomorrow morning," Zuko began, his yellow eye burrowing into the Duke's, which, in the absence of his too-large helmet, were revealed to be a bright copper color, "when Holy Sun wakes you, you may come to the training ground and the Avatar and I, WILL teach you. If that is what you want."

The Duke sniffled a little bit, then nodded his head jerkily.

"Good. Very good." He put one hand on the Duke's small shoulder. "Welcome home."

Then, quite shyly, the Duke actually smiled at him. Zuko found himself smiling back.

Aang laughed delightedly and nearly tackled the Duke in a hug, beaming at him. He expounded loudly about how amazing it was that the Duke was a firebender, and wasn't firebending cool, and how much fun they were going to have tomorrow. Zuko looked on, rather pleased, as Aang, understanding the situation without needing to be told, took the Duke off to show their friends, proving to the Duke that his firebending was nothing to be scared or ashamed of.

Which, Zuko realized belatedly, left him all alone with Katara.

 _Ok. So… I should go… before-_

"You must be so _pleased_ with yourself," Katara spat, her eyes once again narrowed to flinty grey-blue points. "Another firebender, ready to live and _die_ at the word of his lord. So very-" she cut off as the nearby campfire flared red and jumped nearly a foot in the air.

"And why do YOU think the boy was so terrified?" Zuko snarled, taking a step forward and looming down at her; every earlier inclination to simply ignore and/or escape her forgotten in an instant. "Perhaps because everyone just _knows_ that we're _all_ 'evil?' Maybe because somebody HERE won't shut up about it? Perhaps because _somebody's_ fucking psychopathic _boyfriend_ was a piece of filth who spent most of his time trying to kill us!?

"You son of a…"

"I am DONE with your…"

And then there was _shouting_. They roared at each other, Katara forcing her way into his personal space and Zuko, a small part of his brain still screaming at him to abort, turning around every few sentences and trying to disengage. But Katara kept shouting, and he, sometimes over his shoulder as he walked away, shouted back.

Then all of a sudden they were in Zuko's tent, and he turned to tell her to get out…

Except that she was already on top of him.

And then _he_ was on top of _her._

Who it was that was on top suddenly became a matter of very frantic vital urgency.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

 _This… is UNHEALTHY,_ Zuko thought a few days later, as he, once again, lay in a semi-naked disordered heap on the floor of his tent, surrounded by wreckage.

The first time he had been sure that it was a mistake. That somehow their mutual fury had, through some kind of bizarre alchemy, transformed itself into mindless animal lust. It had to have been a minor miracle of some kind he reasoned; unique, impossible, unrepeatable.

He had, most obviously, been quite wrong.

The second time was his own fault. He admitted that. He should have never engaged. He had just been so proud that he could actually fix something, actually really _FIX_ something, with his firebending that he'd been completely unprepared for Katara's ire.

He had snapped, she had snapped back, and after a large volume of shouting they had ended up naked and panting once again.

But over the course of the last week and the several _dozen_ times _after_ that…

 _Most definitely unhealthy._

Zuko had noted that there was a rhythm to it, rather simple to see in hindsight, when he wasn't caught up in its current. There would be a long, powerful, drawn-out intake of breath, usually from behind him, and then Katara would snap at him.

Over _what_ wasn't relevant. It could be something he had said to someone else earlier in the day, something he had done while training Aang, the Duke, or Sokka, sometimes it was the simple fact that he was simply "in her way" as she bustled about cleaning and cooking.

Before all this had started, Zuko had maintained a strict policy of non-engagement, of moving away as though he had suddenly remembered something that required his urgent attention.

Now however…

 _What in the Ash is wrong with me?_

It didn't seem to matter that he had identified the starting point, didn't matter that he _knew_ that it was both unhealthy and likely dishonorable. It didn't even seem to matter that if Sokka or Hakoda found out it was very likely that one or both of them would probably try to kill him.

Katara would snap at him… he _would_ snap back…

And then, with all the inevitability of night following day, the shouting would build until it became growls, panting and a final screaming cry of release as they both climaxed.

 _This has to stop. If this keeps up, I WILL go mad. I will lose what little sanity I have left and…_

His one functional eye suddenly furrowed in worried thought.

 _What's to say that I haven't already?_

That… would make a bizarre kind of sense. He had… _seen_ things before… his family had a propensity towards madness. Mai was certain that she had, more than once, caught Azula conversing with people who _weren't_ there.

Perhaps this situation was so unrealistic because it _wasn't_ real.

It wasn't as though he could _ask_ Katara. The very thought of speaking to her outside of the context of angry shouting matches filled him with a nauseating mix of longing, guilt, and desire.

 _Maybe I could ask someone else? Maybe Mai…_

His shoulders sagged as he exhaled a breath and rubbed at his face with his hands.

He knew he wouldn't ask anyone, wouldn't get anyone else involved.

Because, real or not, he didn't want this to stop.

It was an addiction. The fury, the sex, the smell of her. All of it.

 _Not. Healthy._

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Then there came the breaking point.

There had been another shouting match. What had started it Zuko couldn't even remember at this point. Not that it was particularly relevant to anything.

He still wasn't in control of himself it seemed, no matter his admonitions to Aang about the necessity of control, no matter that he was worried that he might be going as mad as his father. He felt almost as though he were just a spectator at this point, sitting on the very edge of his seat, watching the tempo of their argument rise to its inevitable climax, where he would turn to disengage, knowing full well that it wasn't even _close_ to being the end. Katara would follow him and then the two of them would both lose the thin veneer of sanity that they had left in a tangled twisting of their bodies back in his tent.

The breaking point came because Katara had chosen the wrong time to snap.

She had snapped at him just before _dinner._

And somewhere in the midst of all the shouting, they had acquired an _audience;_ Sokka, Suki, Toph, Mai, Ty Lee…

… and Aang.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," he said pacifyingly, striding in between them, startling Zuko back to sanity. "Sweetie? There's no need for this."

" _Sweetie?" Who in the FUCK does he think he's talking t-_

Katara was as rigid as a board, her terrible lovely eyes still affixed on Zuko over Aang's shoulder, as Aang reached out and gripped hers.

"I know you two don't get along… but this is getting out of hand. 'Though it is the easier path, to do nothing, peace is found along the more difficult path: _forgiveness,'"_ Aang quoted, smiling at her gently as he pontificated. "You are _better_ than this, I know you are." And with that, he dipped down and kissed her gently.

And Zuko's rage went all the way _through_ white-hot and back into the cold dark fury he'd felt before as the nearby campfire turned red.

 _Fuck it. I'll KILL HIM. I'll peel that fucking arrow from his head and-_

 _ **SLAP!**_

Katara had _slapped_ him.

Aang. She had slapped Aang.

A full-armed slap, with all the power of a master bender behind it, and it had nearly taken Aang off his feet in his surprise.

Zuko's rage was extinguished in utter shock, a feeling obviously shared as it was mirrored on Aang's face while the full murderous fury of Katara's glare fell on him for a full five seconds.

Then she seemed to come back to herself suddenly in realization, and her face crumpled in horror as she turned and fled.

Suki flew after her, shooting angry looks at Zuko AND Aang as she did.

The entire group stood in stunned silence for a long moment.

"What… in the FUCK… did you do THAT for, Aang?!" Toph said, breaking the silence in the way only she could. She didn't even use his nickname, a sure sign that she was shocked. Or pissed. Or probably some combination of the two.

"But-but-but… she… what did I DO?!" Aang said, near to panic, the image of a wise monk now replaced with a very confused and nervous teenager with a glowing red handprint on his cheek.

"Why did you _kiss_ her?" Sokka said, less angry and more utterly astonished, his eyes darting between Aang and Zuko as though preparing to have to throw himself in between them. Mai shifted slightly out of the corner of Zuko's eye, apparently preparing to do something similar.

"I thought… I mean… I don't… I thought that was what you were _supposed_ to do!" Aang said, now seeming more confused than ever before. "Your girlfriend gets angry, you calm her do-"

"Girlfriend?!" Toph squawked. "What the gravel-chewing fuck! When did _that_ happen!?"

 _Oh… oh shit. Katara… oh, ash and burning BONE,_ Zuko thought in horror.

"B- before we met you," Aang continued, rubbing at the back of his neck sheepishly. "Sorry I didn't tell you, but things have been so crazy and-"

 _Before they met Toph? But… oh, spirits… this whole time? This whole ash-spawned time I've been… we've been…_ Zuko thought he might be sick.

"Uhh… what?" Sokka asked, looking even more confused as opposed to the angry that Zuko had been expecting.

"The Cave of Two Lovers? Our love lit the way out," Aang said in explanation. "Then before the invasion, we kissed!"

"… _And?"_ Toph said, obviously in expectation of more.

"And… what?" Aang said in confusion.

"Did you, I don't know, ASK HER OUT?!" Toph shouted, grabbing him by the collar of his robes and shaking him.

"Uh… why would I need to do that?" Aang said. "We kissed! That's… that's what that means… right?"

Zuko's rage was now completely gone. Suddenly and irrevocably extinguished in the face of this total ridiculousness.

"That's NOT HOW IT WORKS!" Toph roared, shaking Aang back and forth. "You can't just assume that you're dating because you fucking _kissed_! Did you go on a date? Did you tell her you loved her? Did you fucking buy her a little apron with a fucking cute-ass elephant-koi on it?!"

 _Ash and bone… she told Toph about that?_ Zuko thought, the functional side of his face heating.

Toph, however, seemed to be vibrating with indignation and fury. "You need to go _talk_ to her, Aang. Right now. No dodging, no assuming, no fucking panty-waist dithering." She practically threw him in the direction that Katara had run. "GO!"

Aang looked very very young as he looked from Zuko to Toph to Sokka, then took off in the direction Katara had gone.

There was a long pause as the group seemed to collectively shake their heads. Sokka was the first to break the stillness, moving towards the soup that Katara had been cooking and sniffing at it. Ascertaining that it was fit for consumption, he ladled himself a bowl and started eating.

"Spit and Stone," Toph swore, exhaling a long breath. "That was fucked up, huh?"

The rest of the group nodded silently in agreement, Sokka with a mouthful of soup.

Toph plopped herself down on one of the stones that were arranged as benches around the group's firepit. "Man, Twinkle-Toes is gonna lose his shit when he finds out that Sweetness and Sparky here have been going at it like rabbit-voles again."

Zuko winced as Sokka choked on his soup.

 _Uh oh._

"You… you've been _sleeping_ with my sister?" Sokka said, pulling out his new boomerang with the hand that wasn't holding his bowl of soup.

"Oh please," Mai drawled, rolling her eyes. "The amount of noise those two make it's a wonder that _any_ of us get any sleep."

 _Oh… THAT'S not good._

"Awww, star-crossed lovers. Isn't it romantic?" Ty Lee crooned, leaning into Mai, batting her eyelashes.

Mai snorted in derision, but still put one arm around her.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Several hours later, after Mai had negotiated Sokka down from murder and/or castration to a single punch to the face and a lifetime supply of fireflakes, Zuko sat alone at the edge of a cliff away from the camp.

He was meditating, trying to focus on the fact that, after he had punched him, Sokka had simply said that he was going to finish kicking the rest of Zuko's ass tomorrow during their sparring session. The fact that, somehow, they were still friends was the one bright spot in a seemingly endless dark void of confusion and misery that was his life otherwise.

Confusion that only intensified as the sound of footsteps came up behind him.

"How _could_ you?" Katara hissed, "how could you _tell_ him?"

Zuko, his fists now clenched, said nothing.

"Frost TAKE YOU, Zuko! TALK TO ME!" Katara screamed.

Zuko's shoulders sagged.

"I… I didn't tell him anything," he said quietly, just above a whisper. "Rule Nine."

Even without turning, Zuko could practically see her eyes grow wide in her head in reference to their old rules.

And then she inhaled…

That same, now familiar, breath she always took before she launched into a tirade. It would start the pattern all over again, a shouting match that would crescendo into another furious bout of animalistic lust that would consume them both.

It wasn't healthy… for _her_.

"Stop," Zuko said. "This needs to stop. This is not good for you… or for me. Just… just go."

A bitter silence fell, the inevitable pattern averted.

"I hate you."

Zuko just nodded without turning around.

"You… you can't DO this to me!" Katara said, suddenly sounding both furious and near the edge of despair. "You can't just keep _taking_ everything from me. Toph, my brother, my father, my best friend, my _mother!_ Is that all the Fire-Nation does? You just take, and take, and TAKE, and-"

"Enough!" Zuko said, rising to his feet, once again forgoing his planned silence as he spun around to face her. "I will accept the insults I deserve, but you will _not_ blame your mother's death on me. I was _nine_ when your people broke the armistice. I will not be held responsible for the outc-"

" _WE_ didn't break the armistice," she said glaring up at him.

"…what?" Zuko was surprised that she would tell an outright lie. Normally she stuck to the numerous things that were, ostensibly, true to goad him with. "Yes… yes, you did. You attacked some… some traders in the South Sea. It was right after uncle came back. The whole court was in an uproar, they were all saying that you were testing my father's resolve now that Azulon was dead."

Katara just looked at him strangely, her eyes narrowed as though she was just as surprised as he was. "My dad used to take boats out to meet Fire-Nation traders in the South Sea, to trade rhino-whale oil and furs for fruits and vegetables. It's the reason they made him chief. Then a warship attacked them all while they were still moored together and sank the Fire-Nationers. My dad got out of there and managed to lose them in the ice… but they came back." Her eyes were huge now, staring into his. "They came back during a council meeting and killed nearly every waterbender we had left… and my mother."

She was telling the truth. He knew it, but it couldn't…

"They… everyone said… my… my father said…" Zuko whispered his lone eye growing just as wide.

Ozai was not known for his honesty.

 _They… LIED._

"She had _surrendered,_ Zuko!" Katara said, her eyes filling with tears. "She surrendered and said that _she_ was the last waterbender! So that they wouldn't kill me too. Then they… he…"

 _No nonononononono. She surrendered… we don't… the Fire-Nation soldier wouldn't…_

"He burned her alive," Katara said simply, the words falling into the stillness like drops of water on a formerly still pond.

Or perhaps more like a splash of oil on to a fire.

 _They… they HURT her…_

"Not that I suppose you _care,_ " Katara said, looking away, trying to surreptitiously bend away her tears. "You… you…"

 _THEY_ _ **HURT**_ _MY KATARA!_

Katara jerked back as Zuko roared in fury, a burst of flame pouring out of his mouth and into the air over her head as a pair of flames from his fists set the cliffside behind him ablaze.

"THEY DIE!" he roared, flames around him dancing and cavorting. He was nearly _incoherent_ with rage, but not the insane rage, not that _other_ thing inside him. This was something different, something old and primal, something that hummed across his nerves in counterpoint to the _SONG,_ the roaring and chanting throng of his ancestors, calling for blood, calling for _vengeance,_ a thousand thousand drums beating in time with his heart.

He roared again and took off back to the war camp, feet leaving charred footprints in the ground as the light of the Sun broke across the horizon behind him.

* * *

 **AN:** **WOO. /wipes the sweat from his figurative brow. Now THERE'S some angst for ya!**

 **Good morning ladies and gents and welcome to the end of the chapter! I hope you enjoyed it at least half as much as I did while writing it. Remember, comment/review/kudos/like/subscribe/blah blah. No time for that, lots of author's notes to get too!**

 **.**

 **BITS! META! SO MANY!**

 **.**

 **The Title?:** **Quick question; now that you've read it what did you think about the title. I swear this is the first chapter that I've not been 100% sure about the title ON THE DAY OF. Seriously, the top of this word document had about a dozen different title ideas when I woke up this morning and that's NEVER been the case before. So, yeah I like this one… I think. Do you?**

 **.**

 **Never Gonna Give Up:** **I seriously regretted that I couldn't put Zuko's "never give up speech" into the boiling rock chapter, it just didn't fit without the cooler scene. So in deference to that, I've added it here, with regards to Sokka's feelings of non-competence in martial affairs. Like in the coolers he really had nothing to be ashamed of, getting bonked on the head was inevitable as I've turned Zuko into the friggin terminator. Which is why Suki has nothing to feel bad about when…**

 **.**

 **Suki and the duel that started it all:** **Suki is awesome, make no bones about that, but this was LITERALLY the worst way to try and fight this version of Zuko. Sidle up to him, impugn his honor and then fight a formalized duel, complete with staring match? Nope. Not even Toph wins in that situation. But the question you're asking yourself is, why? Why is Suki so "mysteriously" angry?**

 **Because Katara TOLD her, that's why.**

 **Again we play the off-camera game, and I write this down here so that when I finally make my (slow, so very slow) way to this scene in my Katara centric piece I remember what I was thinking.**

 **Now in addition to all the other emotional bullshit that was crammed into our poor girl, Hakoda has left. Certainly not the same kind of feelings that would have happened had they been separated by Azula via the airship assault o' doom but, in some ways, it's actually** _ **worse.**_ **This time Hakoda** _ **chose**_ **to leave. Chose to leave Katara** _ **again**_ **. For duty. Katara I think is smart enough and mature enough to realize the necessity of it, but that doesn't change the non-rational emotions she's having. This is** _ **Zuko's**_ **fault and so she is even more murder-tastical. Although murder in this instance being impossible as she is aware that the very fate of the world might hinge on Zuko almost as much as Aang at this point.**

 **So, because she's only human, she has a small private cry.**

 **And Suki catches her at it.**

 **Suki is appropriately commiserative and wants to know what's wrong. Katara mentions her dad leaving but Suki is aware enough to see that that isn't ALL of it. SO, because a burden shared is a burdened lessened, Katara gives her a brief outline and why she's so distraught.**

 **And Suki, with all the righteous indignation of a good friend goes, "Oh? Well. I GOT something for him."**

 **And the something is an ass-whooping. I think Katara would feel better for about 5 minutes before she realized that Suki was about to do something that might blow the whole thing. So she rushes over to the training yard, and what does she find?**

 **Zuko pinning Suki to a rock and seemingly enjoying himself.**

 **So NOW we have all that other emotional BS and… Jealousy.**

 **Yep. Jealousy.**

 **The scene that I struck there at the end is a** _ **direct**_ **parallel to the Katara and Zuko fight after Avatar day in the last book. Zuko is not** _ **actually**_ **having romantic feelings towards Suki but jealousy requires no rationality.**

 **Katara has now reached critical-mass, the timer has begun, the explosion inevitable which is why we get…**

 **.**

 **Surprise sex!:** **Ladies and Gentlemen welcome back to slap-slap-kiss, now in a NEW and darker flavor. The chapter IS rated U for unhealthy and so nobody here should imagine that I am advocating this sort of behavior. They are literally back to NOT talking about things and expressing their feelings with physicality. I hope nobody was too taken aback by the situation, I would have given as much warning as I did the last time we took a foray into the explicit, but I wanted it to be a surprise. So… Surprise!**

 **So, again the question is WHY? And again I explain the (in my mind anyway) Katara mindset. She has, for some weeks now, been trying, consciously or unconsciously, to provoke an emotional response out of Zuko. Zuko has, in her mind, been ignoring her, been completely unaffected by her presence, and for someone in as much pain as she is that is even MORE maddening. A part of her has become convinced that Zuko didn't actually love her at all, that it was all some sort of ruse on his part, either to get into her pants or to spy or something, she's not clear on that part. But the fact that he seems entirely** _ **unaffected**_ **by her speaks to that conclusion in her mind.**

 **Obviously, WE know that isn't the case but Katara isn't a mind reader.**

 **But then she calls him a coward and she actually gets an emotive response, not just the silent nods that are the only communication she's gotten out of him in months. So because she is on the brink of madness herself she follows Zuko when he tries, again, to remain unaffected by her.**

 **She shouts at him, looking for something, anything, that might prove to her that she wasn't crazy that Zuko** _ **did**_ **care about her, at all.**

 **And then she floats her theory about him never loving her.**

 **And then she sees Zuko explode, because, as we all know, he is still very MUCH in love with her.**

 **Then because her worst fears (yes Zuko actually STILL caring was probably the worst fear) are confirmed and she is now jealous, angry, worried, happy, grief-stricken, lonely, and still very much in love with Zuko, and THEN he turns to leave her, AGAIN, she lashes out with the weapon of last resort.**

 **And THAT is the recipe for angry-sex.**

 **.**

 **Taking it down a notch:** **So on a less emotive, angry-sex, note, I have had a thought. Why did the Air-** _ **Nomads**_ **have temples? It's right there in their name, Nomad. Nomads don't, by definition, have permanent dwellings. So… what's the deal? I'd love to hear your thoughts on the subject.**

 **.**

 **Aang is an evangelical:** **Aang in many fics gets labeled as kinda preachy. I'm trying to tone this down a bit, but his religion IS a large part of his character. He, like most religious people, is pretty happy with his faith, and as he is not an asshole, and wants other people to be happy too, he will want others to understand and believe as he does. "It works for me, why not you?" He, being Aang, will NOT, however, be going door to door thumping the Air-Nomad bible. But he will mention it, frequently, in his round-about pacifist Air-Nomad way.**

 **.**

 **The MFing DUKE:** **I have to say I'm pretty proud of this one. I have NO idea when this idea occurred to me but it was one of those lightning bolts to the brain, "Oh godsdamn, THAT'S awesome," moments that are the BEST part of writing (aside from the comments/reviews wink-wink-nudge-nudge.) THIS is why the Duke has been following Zuko around, he's the first firebender that the Duke ever met that wasn't trying to kill him, or being murdered by Jet. Poor little guy. Imagine being taken in by a buncha fire-nation hating rebels and then discovering that you ARE one yourself. It's my explanation as to why he's called "the Duke." Because his name sounds REALLY Fire-Nation-y. He MIGHT be named Wang Fire… but probably not.**

 **For MY money his surname is Tokugawa.**

 **Because you don't get much more Japanese than that.**

 **.**

 **Katara is more worried for the Duke than angry:** **Katara, in the Duke learns firebending scene, is surprised and horrified. She is surprised because DUH and horrified because, she realized how scared the Duke must have been and that she is partially responsible for that. She is not upset with the Duke, she IS upset with Zuko. Notice how her snapping has to do primarily with him, not the Duke. This also sets the stage for round 2 of sexy-fight night.**

 **I leave rounds 3 through 27 up to your imagination.**

 **.**

 **Aang, sheltered 100-year-old monk:** **Yet another breaking point, yet another author note. Let's talk about Aang some more, shall we? Aang is 100 years behind the times, and even THEN he was 100 years plus highly sheltered. I know that he wandered around and had adventures before the icebergening but as the AirNomad gurus have KNOWN that he was the avatar from a very young age (the whole picking out toys thing) I have no doubt that wherever he went it was with several bodyguards. I see Monk Gyasto as the AirNomad #1 fighter. So, sheltered. Then we factor in the fact that, for all we can see, AirNomads do NOT have classic romantic relationships. They don't live with the other gender, they don't have family units. So all Aang really has to go on is books and scrolls. He most likely does not associate a lot of what we classically consider romantic behavior with dating and romance. This is NOT his fault. What he does know is that Katara cares about him a lot, they have kissed, and that he has some feelings for her. They have not talked about it, but Katara has been in a rather bad mood since the invasion, and Aang has no idea how to deal with that.**

 **So, he comes to a very wrong-headed conclusion and tries a different tact, something that he** _ **has**_ **seen or heard mentioned somewhere.**

 **Not a good plan.**

 **But now he has** _ **also**_ **seen Katara. For the first time really she has been in angry murder-mode AT him, Katara is not the perfect pedestal-occupying girl that he has imagined her to be.**

 **In essence, I moved the Ember Island Players kiss forwards for this chapter. I hope nobody minds but, as always,**

 **I REGRET nothing.**

 **.**

 **REAL Akodo rage:** **I imagine that Zuko and Katara stopped talking about their mothers after the initial cry. They shared, it made Katara cry, Zuko hated it. As a man, I can tell you that most of us HATE when girls cry. Sends the old caveman part of our brains in a frenzy of club-smashing plans. But our two Love-birds** _ **didn't**_ **talk about the whys and wherefores of Kya's death. They weren't even examining their** _ **own**_ **relationship too hard. So now it's out there, Zuko has learned that, not only did Katara's mom get** _ **murdered**_ **(not just killed in a battle or duel or something like he had supposed) but murdered in the most horrifying and dishonorable way he can imagine.**

 **They HURT his Katara.**

 **And so we get the Real frigging Deal. THIS is what Akodo rage was originally, before the Curse of Sozin. More controlled, more berserk, less laughter. We have seen glimmers and variants of it before, Ping's death, The North Pole, but this is the real thing. This is Akodo, who was at his heart a family man, and who was willing to put anybody who threatened them in the ground.**

 **This also sets up the circumstances for the chapter you've ALL been waiting for. You know the one. The one with the Raiding. And all the Southern-ness.**

 **.**

 **Just after the credits:** **So, I had a brief chuckle after finishing this chapter and starting the next one. Zuko stomps off and Katara is left there in utter confusion.**

 **With a blazing cliffside.**

 **So, before it spreads she puts it out with her bending and then follows along behind Zuko, putting out his burning footprints, grumbling, and swearing under her breath.**

 **Grassfires are dangerous after all.**

 **.**

 **Thanks again for reading! You're all amazing!**

 **.**

 **.**

 **NEXT WEEK on a very special "Avatar: The Last Dragon"...**

 **Zuko and Katara go Raiding in a Southern direction.**

 **TUNE IN. Same Zuko time, Same Zuko channel!**

 **Original post date: 17 February 2019**


	13. The Southern Raiders

**A/N:** **The Following is Rated B; for Blood.**

 **It corresponds, chronologically, with S3E16 "The Southern Raiders."**

 **Reader discretion is advised.**

* * *

Chapter 13 "The Southern Raiders."

* * *

 **Early Summer, Year 12 in the reign of Fire-Lord Ozai**

Captain Jee was not a small man.

Not as big as Zuko, and not anywhere as big as Haki, but still he had the build and the armor of a career Fire-Nation soldier and could not honestly be described by any word which meant small, light or tiny.

That, however, did not seem to bother Zuko in his current state. He had the shorter man off the ground and was shaking him as though he believed the information he wanted might somehow fall out of him.

"What the fuck do you MEAN you don't know!" Zuko roared, holding himself back from murder by his fingernails.

"I don't- gack- know anything about the Southern Raiders, sire!" Jee managed to choke out.

"USELESS!" Zuko snarled, his yellow eye glaring upwards into Jee's. "Maybe I should have just _gutted_ you back on the Devastator? You miserable, useless pile of-"

"Zuko!" Katara's voice rang out from behind him like a whip crack, freezing him in place. Despite the angry tone it somehow reduced his rage to a low simmer.

Zuko set Jee down, gently, and smoothed his uniform out, his yellow eye still affixed on Jee's. "FIND. Them," he growled quietly. Then he turned around to face Katara.

She stood there, looking for all the world like a woman about to confront a husband who was coming home with alcohol on his breath, several hours later than he'd promised. Her hands were on her hips and her foot was tapping impatiently as Zuko strode over to her.

And then _past_ her.

He was reasonably certain that he didn't have _time_ for this. He had a war to prepare for, a pacifist to train, and more allies to find. He did not have time to discover even _more_ reasons to hate his own father. He did not have time to be consumed with rage over the childhood tragedies of a woman who wanted nothing to do with him. He did not have time for a woman who could crawl under his skin, befuddle his mind, and make him want nothing more than to simply wrap her up in his arms and hold her until she…

"Who are the Southern Raiders?" Katara said. She was following him again and, as was typical, her question seemed a great deal more like a command than anything else.

"Not your concern," Zuko growled, not stopping. _Now where in the ash is Aang? Is he still sulking? He'd better GET OVER IT. I'll flaming well give him something to sulk ab-_

"Not my _concern?_ " Katara shouted. "The people who killed my mother aren't my _concern_?!"

Zuko stopped and spun around so fast that Katara almost bumped into him.

"If you _knew_ , then _WHY_ WERE YOU ASKING!?" he roared.

Katara just glared at him for a long moment.

 _Well, obviously she overheard the whole conversation, not like I was being quiet,_ Zuko thought as he spun back around to find Aang.

"I just think it's funny how all of a sudden this is _any_ of your business!" Katara snapped as she continued to follow him. "After all, it's just _another_ murderous firebender, just _another_ smoking corpse left in the wake of the Fire-Nation's glorious destiny!"

"We are NOT all like that!" Zuko snarled, spinning around, and glaring down at her once again. "Violating the armistice and striking down an unarmed prisoner in front of her _child_ is nearly the HEIGHT of dishonor! Something you would understand if you ever LISTENED!"

" _Listened_? Oh, that's _rich_ coming from you! You ignore me every chance you-"

"I _never_ ignore you," Zuko said quietly, through clenched teeth.

Katara's face lost its rage, her mouth dropping open slightly at the expression on Zuko's face. There was a long moment where they simply stood staring at one another, then Zuko turned back around and began to walk away.

"What will you do?" Katara said quietly, not following after him now. "What will you do when you find him; the man who killed my mother?"

Zuko stopped in place, eye on the ground and really considered the question for a moment.

 _What will_ I _DO?_ he thought incredulously.

The answer was obvious, and he could still hear it being shouted at him in the violent chorus of the _SONG._

"…I will _kill_ him," Zuko whispered, his rage once again like shards of ice in his blood, his voice growing in volume and intensity. "I will rip his fucking heart out and EAT it. I will burn the very SKIN from HIS BONES and-"

"What does he have to do with you?" Katara said, once again bringing herself into his personal space, her eyes on his, looking for something.

"He… he…"

 _He hurt you,_ Zuko thought. _He hurt you like I hurt you._

But that was not an answer that would be acceptable to her, not anymore.

"He's… a war-criminal, and a stain on the honor of the Fire-Nation," he said aloud.

Katara's brows creased downwards in irritation and, for the first time in months, her index finger rammed home into its familiar spot at Zuko's chest.

"You are NOT killing anyone else for _me_ , Akodo Zuko."

"W-what?"

"If anyone kills that bastard… it's going to be ME!"

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Captain Jee had come up with a plan.

Perhaps it was Zuko's prior "motivational" speech about gutting him, but Jee had, with an alacrity that both pleased and impressed Zuko, brainstormed, planned, and presented a full fleshed-out operational order before the Sun had even hit the opposite horizon.

As such, he was now _Major_ Jee.

What most surprised Zuko, however, was that he was aided in his presentation by _Sokka_ who, with a variety of waving hand-motions and ridiculous codenames, explained the most interesting (and " _surprising"_ he made certain to say several times, grinning at Zuko) part of the plan to the assembled general staff of Zuko's army.

Zuko supposed he shouldn't have been too surprised, he hadn't exactly been quiet about what he had wanted from Jee. Now that he thought about it, it was likely that the _entire_ camp had some inkling of what Zuko had wanted.

It was also, now that he really thought about it, possible that they all also knew about what had been happening in the confines of Zuko's tent on a rather loud and frequent basis.

He supposed that he was lucky that Lord Shinjo was still in the North.

 _Deal with that when it happens. Deal with that when it happens. Deal with that when it happens._

That was the new mantra.

Despite all the code names, diagrams, and the one entirely insane, purely Sokka, idea that was the crux of the plan, it was relatively simple. In hindsight, Jee might have been working on such a plan for weeks previous.

Seizing a naval message tower would provide a veritable treasure trove of intelligence for the war effort.

The real challenge would be to do it without warning, and as Sokka grinned his shit-eating grin, slapping the diagram that he and Teo had come up with, Zuko grinned back.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"I can't believe you still have that stupid mask," Mai said, amusement subtly tinging her voice.

Zuko had found that she'd become a great deal less impassive over the last few weeks. He wondered if it had more to do with the constant presence of Ty Lee, or with the fact that she had discovered that her parents, who were now "safely" back on the home island, had officially disowned her.

Not that they had likely had a choice in the matter, or that something like that was even valid during a Sengoku.

"You're the one that said I should try to avoid being recognized during operations like this," Zuko said from behind his Grey Ghost mask. "Something about overemphasizing strategic significance."

"Yes, but I just can't believe you still have _that_ stupid thing. _Were_ you the 'Grey Ghost' in all those intelligence reports we used to get? Ty and I had thought it was just a coincidence."

Zuko shrugged, and a silence fell over the tiny spar of stone, about a quarter of a mile from the soon to be assaulted Naval message tower.

"So… why are you here?" Zuko said quietly, trying to break the tension. "I thought you said that this was a stupid plan, and you wanted no part of it?"

"I'm here to make sure _she_ doesn't kill you," Mai said, gesturing towards Katara, clad in black and standing stiffly at the other end of the tiny spar of stone.

Katara didn't respond to the comment. She was entirely focused upon the silhouette of the naval tower in the fading light, her posture like a hunting bird, poised and ready to fly forward and kill.

Not that she'd get her chance tonight, she wasn't part of the plan. Even Zuko was only there to observe.

The Navy's communication towers were built in remote corners of the sea, with nothing for miles in any direction. With the civil war in progress, the tower's keepers would have strict orders to shutter their hatches and prepare for a long-term siege if any vessel came too close without identifying themselves. If anyone tried to _land_ , the occupants of the tower would certainly be able to burn every useful bit of intelligence, and notify the other towers, before they fell. Naval forces would redeploy, codes would be changed, and anything that the soldiers within knew, would be useless within hours.

Zuko's forces would need to approach with stealth and seize the records room and the hawkery without allowing the defenders to send a single hawk carrying a distress message, something that was flatly impossible with conventional tactics and forces.

So, as Sokka had said, they would just have to use some UNconventional ones.

… _Spirits, Katara is going to be pissed._

The woman in question's breath hissed out of her like a ready teakettle as the lone airship, hovering as high as it could safely go, disgorged a dozen small objects which, a few moments later, sprouted grey parachutes and made their slow drifting way towards the top of the tower.

"Tell me that Sokka is not one of those… _idiots_ ," she said with a snarl as she turned to Zuko.

"It… was his idea."

"Of course it was his idea! He's an idiot!" She whipped back around, staring balefully at the paratroopers as they glided towards their target, controlling their flight with a pair of handles that Sokka and Teo had rigged up.

The three of them watched in silence as the bravest fools Zuko had ever known all landed on the angled roof of the tower.

Zuko winced at the screeching, ripping, noise that could be heard all the way from where they stood as Toph, who had eagerly agreed to be strapped to Sokka's chest, metalbent their way in.

 _Damn. I was really hoping that-_

"You… let… _Toph…_ " Katara couldn't even seem to form coherent sentences anymore.

"She… she insisted." The idea that Zuko might have been able to stop Toph from doing something that sounded, to her, like something both fun _and_ dangerous was absurd.

Almost as absurd as the idea of not allowing Katara to come along.

 _I begin to see why Sokka didn't tell her about the mission brief. He knows his sister._

Sokka _had_ been bizarrely calm about the whole thing. Zuko had attempted to apologize, to apologize for… well, all of it, but his attempts had been waved off somewhat brusquely. Sokka had instead simply stuck his boomerang in Zuko's face and said very quietly that he had better bring Katara back safely or Sokka was going to have to get "unconventional on his ass."

Zuko really didn't want to know what that would entail.

It was a tense few minutes before one of the firebenders who had volunteered for the assignment shot several bursts of fire into the air.

"Two long, two short. They've got the records room, and the hawkery. Excellent," Zuko said quietly, mostly for Katara's benefit. "Now the Navy will move in and-" he cut off as Katara lunged forward, bending ice under her feet in a split second, intent on going to the tower herself. Zuko, who in the back of his mind had anticipated something like this, managed to just barely leap onto the trailing end of the ice raft. He could hear Mai cursing as she and the tiny spar of stone disappeared behind them.

"Well. Now _she_ is going to be pissed," Zuko muttered as he climbed to his feet.

"She'll get over it," Katara growled, her arms swinging and sweeping them forwards with rapidly increasing speed.

"There is no point to this. Our forces will be here soon, then we will tear the garrison out of-"

"How long?" Katara said, not stopping their forward progress, the tower swelling in Zuko's vision.

"Maybe half an hour… no more."

"Enemies?"

"Only a company, not even a hundred. Sokka will have barricaded himself in the upper levels before he sent the signal… He's going to be _fine_ , Ka-"

"Unacceptable," Katara spat in a fair imitation of him.

"This is not a good idea!" Zuko said. "What do you think the two of us are going to-"

"Just WATCH me!" she roared, and then the ice raft crested on an absolutely enormous wave that threw the both of them at the Naval tower.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

… _Wow,_ Zuko thought, face bent in what was most likely an incredibly sappy, lovestruck, look behind his Grey Ghost mask.

Katara had gotten _better._

How that was _possible_ he couldn't even begin to fathom, but it was true. She was the typhoon he had once called her as she rolled through the tower, water and ice flooding around her like some sort of demonic water spout, freezing soldiers in place and quenching the enemies' flames like campfires left below the hightide line.

Zuko didn't even have to _bend_ as he trailed along behind her and he easily managed to keep his identity hidden as he struck down the few soldiers that she missed in her rampage.

Her hair unbound she danced through the tower, subduing where she could, wounding where she could not, all the while blocking and striking with her tessen as she went. She was a one-woman _battalion_ , and the company sized garrison never stood a chance.

 _There she is… THERE'S my snuggle-bunny._

He had really missed her.

They reached the uppermost levels of the tower all too soon and Katara rapped on the twisted metal barricade that Toph had obviously thrown up.

"Who iiis iiiitt?" Sokka's voice, pitched in a high sing-song falsetto, drifted out.

"Open the DOOR, Sokka," Katara growled.

There was a long pause.

"…You can't fool ME, evil voice-change-y firebender man! But kudos on the impersonation! Has _just_ the right amount of bossiness."

Zuko snorted and shook his head as Katara drew a deep breath.

"SHINJO SOKKA you open this door RIGHT NOW or, so help me, I will tell EVERYONE here about the 'Whale Blubber Incident!'" she shouted, now banging both fists on the door.

There was a second shorter pause that was quickly followed by a heated argument as Sokka tried to convince Toph (who obviously _wanted_ to hear the "whale blubber' story) to open the door. Eventually, after much pleading, and something that sounded suspiciously like an oath of eternal fealty, the barricade was removed and Katara stalked into the room, shouting irritably at Sokka about "stupid plans" and "fool-headedness" and "bringing a little girl along" which of course got Toph involved in the argument as Suki and Ty Lee watched in amusement. The regular Fire-Nation soldiers and a pair of Kyoshi Warriors just looked on in stunned silence.

Zuko pulled off his mask and commended the small squad of volunteers (the ones _not_ currently engaged in a three-way bickering match that is) for their admirable and historic performance. Then he moved off to the records room. It took only a moment for him to re-familiarize himself with the organized chaos that would be incomprehensible to anyone who had never served in the Fire-Nation armed forces, and to find the reports he was looking for.

When he re-entered the room Katara was still dressing down her older brother while Toph seemed to be sulking.

He held out the scroll for her, but didn't release it when she tugged on it.

"I'm coming with you," he said flatly. It was not in any way, shape, or form a question.

"I don't need _your_ help," Katara growled, giving the scroll a tug, her eyes still locked on his.

Zuko lifted his sword into her vision, he had not cleaned it yet, and two-thirds of its length was covered in blood.

"You didn't _get_ them all."

There was another long pause as Katara's eyes flicked to his sword briefly, then back again. Then she nodded in acquiescence, and Zuko released his grip.

"…Whale Tail Island," she said after a moment of scanning the scroll. "They're patrolling off Whale Tail Island." With that, she swept out of the room.

Zuko glanced over to Sokka, who met his eyes and gave him a curt nod.

Zuko nodded back and followed after her.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Zuko's smallish navy, such as it was, was there when they got to the base of the tower, transport crafts disgorging several companies of soldiers onto the rocky beach.

Aang was there too.

"You look terrible," Katara said. Aang looked like he hadn't slept in several days, but his posture was firm as he stood between Katara and the ocean, his staff in one hand.

"What exactly do you think this will accomplish?" Aang said, ignoring her comment. Someone, smart money was on Toph, must have filled him in, because Zuko hadn't seen him since Katara had slapped him.

"I knew you wouldn't understand," Katara said gritting her teeth and she made to walk around him.

"Wait! Stop! I _do_ understand," Aang said, moving to put himself between her and the ocean. "You're feeling unbelievable pain and rage. How do you think I felt about the sandbenders when they stole Appa? How do you think I felt about the Fire-Nation when I found out what happened to my people?"

"She needs this, Aang," Zuko interjected quickly, cutting Katara off before she could jump down Aang's throat for daring to compare her mother to Appa. "This is about getting closure and justice."

"I don't think it is," Aang said, his eyes wide and sad. "I think this is about getting revenge."

"Fine. Maybe it is!" Katara shouted. "Maybe that's what I need! Maybe that's what he _deserves._ "

"Katara… you sound like Jet," Aang said.

 _I… must… not… KILL… the Avatar._

"That's not the same!" Katara snapped, her eyes now wide in outrage. "Jet attacked the innocent. This man… he's a _monster_."

Aang took a deep and calming breath. "Katara, the monks used to say that revenge is like a two-headed rat-viper. While you watch your enemy go down, you're being poisoned yourself."

"That's cute," Zuko snarled, his patience for Aang's sermons lost in a heartbeat, "but this is not Air-Nomad fantasy land. This is the _real world,_ and those of us who actually _live in it_ have a different saying. 'An Eye for an Eye. A Tooth for a Tooth…'"

"…a Life for a Life," Katara finished, her jaw set as she nodded. "Aang, now that I know he's out there, out there just _living_ … Now that I know that I can _find_ him… I have no choice."

"You do have a choice! Forgiveness!" Aang said pleadingly.

"I told you you wouldn't understand," Katara snarled. "How could you? You never had a mother."

"… _Katara,_ " Aang said, his face broken into something very near despair, like he was watching her die right in front of him.

"I'm sorry Aang, but this… this is who I am," Katara said quietly. "I am Unicorn, and we are the sea. _Nothing_ stops the tide from coming in."

"Katara… please. I know it's hard to forgive, but we all must-"

"It is not _hard_ , Aang. It is impossible," Katara said, her eyes now fixed beyond him, looking out to the sea.

" _Impossible,"_ Zuko thought with a flare of sadness. _Impossible to forgive._

"Please stop trying to change my mind, Aang. I am going."

"I… see that," Aang said, an odd hollowness in his voice. "I see that this is a journey you need to take. You need to face this man. But," and here he looked back up at Katara in a last desperate gasp of hope, "but when you do, please don't choose revenge. Let your anger out, and then let it _go_. _Forgive_ him."

Katara didn't say anything, she just walked around Aang and towards the sea, where the tide was coming in.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Whale Tail Island was deep in the Southern Seas, north of the Patola Islands and west of Kyoshi. It would be a few days of flying until they arrived there and, for the duration, the tension on Appa's back was palpable.

Zuko had long ago realized that, while Appa did, in fact, _belong_ to Aang, in both a legal and cultural sense, it was _Katara_ who was in charge of him. Just like she was in charge of everyone and everything else in the Avatar's camp, she had simply taken Appa in as one of her charges, another mouth to be fed, another life to be protected. Hence why the bison had come when she called, and took orders from her as readily as he did from Aang.

Sokka called her bossy. Zuko thought of it more as _commanding._ Yet another thing he found immensely attractive about her.

Not that that mattered. Forgiveness was impossible, for him most of all.

But as they flew, Zuko attempted, trying for the professional air of a fellow soldier on the same mission, to take his turn flying Appa.

But Katara consistently refused, and as she drove Appa on, dark circles began to grow under her eyes.

It was not until the second day that Zuko actually spoke to her.

"You need rest," he said firmly. He had come up behind where she sat on Appa's head before he spoke, and she jerked in surprise at the sound of his voice. "To enter battle exhausted is to enter with less than half-"

"If you quote Akodo at me one more time, I am going to throw you into the ocean," she said flatly, not turning around.

"Katara…" and she once again jerked in surprise at the sound of her name, "you _need_ to get some sleep."

"Oh, yes, because I'm so much _weaker_ than you," Katara snarled, still not taking her eyes from the sky ahead of her. " _You_ don't sleep, but _I,_ being a weak and pathetic _girl,_ require sleep."

"I am used to it," Zuko said clenching his fists. He could _not_ let this dissolve into another shouting match.

"Oh, yes, the _mighty_ 'Prince of Fire,'" she said scornfully. "Why, _he_ only needs an hour of sleep a night because he is sustained by a diet of honor and duty. HA!"

 _How does she know that I only-_

"I only sleep an hour a night because I have nightmares," Zuko growled.

"Huh, so, slaughtering all those people would have consequences? Who'd have thought?!" Katara said sarcastically.

"I dream about _Ba Sing Se,_ " Zuko rasped, and Katara went stock still. "I dream about _you,_ holding Aang in your arms and weeping."

Her shoulders sagged and she finally looked over her shoulder at him.

"Do you want to know what _I_ dream about?" she said quietly, her eyes wide and haunted. "I dream about a giant Fire-Nation man looming over my mother… and then setting her on fire. _That's_ what I dream about." She shook her head and turned back around. "So don't tell me to get some sleep… I'm used to it too."

Zuko now wanted, more than he had ever wanted anything he was sure, to simply wrap her up in his arms and hold her.

But he couldn't. He could not be forgiven.

So, he simply nodded, and retreated to the back of Appa's saddle.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Katara brought the three of them onboard the HMS Dagger of Wroth, the flagship of the Southern Raiders, like a tidal wave. She cleared the deck in seconds, dropping sailors and soldiers into the ocean before they could so much as cry out in surprise. Zuko, again behind his mask, flew forwards into the opening at the base of the command tower, Katara behind him. The commander was the goal, not the rest of the crew, and where people popped their heads out of their cabins to look, they were shoved back in, either by whips of water and ice, or Zuko's gauntleted fists and feet. In less than a minute they were at the door to the bridge.

"Ready?" Zuko asked.

Katara's only reply was a roar of rage as she ripped the door from the bulkhead with streams of water.

The commander _was_ on the bridge and his reflexes were good. Zuko was forced to step forward to intercept a blast of fire and disperse it as it screamed towards Katara's unguarded face.

 _Damnit, what is she doing?_ Zuko thought, intercepting another burst of fire. _She used up all her water ripping open the door. What the ash is she going to do now?_

The commander flung his fist forward to bend more fire but, suddenly, inexplicably, his arm stopped in mid-kata.

"What… what?" he sputtered, the eyes in his helmet going wide in surprise.

It was like his hand suddenly had a mind of its own as it pulled him around the room, contorting wildly. It knocked his helmet off, and his face went white with pain as it collided with the floor and was quite obviously broken with a horrible snapping noise.

 _What… is happening?_ Zuko glanced back at Katara and saw her in a bending pose he had never seen before. Her hands were perpendicular to the floor, her fingers like claws and, as she moved her hands, the man in front of them fell to the deck in agony.

"Think back," Katara snarled, her eyes boring into the pale and terrified man on his knees before her. "Think back to your last raid on the Southern Water-Tribe." Her fingers flexed again, and the man's body bent painfully.

"I don't know what you're talking about!" the man screamed. "Please, I don't know! Spirits! I don't _know_!"

"Do not LIE to us," Zuko said, coming back to himself. "You look her in the eye and tell her you don't remember what you did."

Katara flexed her fingers again and the man's eyes _bulged_. Blood began to trickle from his nose, and it flowed… _upwards._ The crimson bands traced sinuous, unnatural patterns in the air and Zuko's hackles did not rise, so much as leapt up, in dread.

 _Blood? She's… she's bending his BLOOD. Oh good spirits no! She's… she's a…_

"Ma- ma- Maho?" the man croaked in front of them. "You're a Maho-Tsukai!" It shouldn't have been possible for his face to go any paler at this point but, somehow, he managed as he named Katara one of the most terrible and ancient monsters in the Fire-Nation's long and bloody history. A Bloodspeaker. Zuko felt the blood drain from his face as well.

The moment hung there for the eternity of two heartbeats.

And then the man collapsed, the blood from his nose splashing to the floor with a sickening squelch as he panted in pain and relief from greater pain.

"It's not him," Katara said quietly, a terrible hollowness in her voice as all the rage vanished from her. "He's… he's not the man."

Zuko was still reeling. "But… but… He's the leader of the Southern Raiders. This has to be-"

Katara had already turned around and began to walk away.

Zuko's shock and superstitious dread was suddenly buried beneath an absolute _flood_ of fury. She _needed_ this. Someone to stare down and punish for her mother's death. Zuko would NOT allow this mission to be a failure.

He could not fail her _again_.

Zuko grabbed the still panting man by the collar and slammed him against the bulkhead. "If _you_ are not the man we're looking for, then who is?" he snarled, ripping off his mask and staring the man in the face.

There was a sharp intake of breath as the man both winced in pain _and_ recognized Zuko. "Yon-Rha!" he bleated, panic clear in his voice. "Jitsuyoteki Yon-Rha! He retired! Four years ago! To the village of Ketsushu. He was the commander before me. Please highness, please! Don't give me to the bloodspeaker, I beg you! In Akodo's name, I beg-"

" _You DARE to beg in front of me?"_ The rest of the man's words were buried as his father's voice boomed in Zuko's ears and the dark thing inside him lunged forward to kill in a burst of simple animalistic rage. With an effort, Zuko managed to restrain it.

He turned and found Katara staring at him, and they held each other's eyes for a long moment.

"You breathe a word of this, to _anyone_ , and you will _wish_ that I had," Zuko said quietly. He dropped the man to the floor and followed Katara out.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

 _Should I ask? I should ask. We've got to- I've got to- that CAN'T have been… Ash and burning Bones._

Zuko once again sat cross-legged at the back of Appa's saddle as Katara drove them on through the night, careening towards the island of Ketsushu.

 _I mean, yes, it certainly LOOKED like Maho… or like one would assume Maho looks… I mean she was bending his BLOOD after all. But…_

The wind whipped through Katara's unbound hair, forcibly reminding him of every time they had really fought one another seriously.

 _If she could always do that… then why only now?_ He thought, his brain more readily processing the tactical considerations.

The only conclusion was that this was something _new_. She wasn't the kind to hold back in defense of her loved ones after all and, if she'd been able, she'd have used that on him at the North Pole. The thought settled his mind somewhat. She hadn't used that ability on him, which meant that she hadn't… That the way he felt was real, and not the subtle twisting of his mind by dark powers.

 _Spirits, I love her._

And with that thought in his head, he abandoned caution and crawled up to Appa's head. He opened his mouth, to say something, anything, but…

"I don't want to talk about it," Katara said, not even turning to look at him.

Zuko exhaled a deep sigh. _This_ most definitely could not be allowed to spiral out of control. Perhaps there _would_ be a better time to-

"Even if I _did_ want to talk about it, now's not the time," Katara said looking at him over her shoulder.

Against his better judgement, Zuko felt one of the corners of his mouth quirk upwards in a smile.

Katara, of course, only glared at him.

In response, Zuko simply nodded his assent and turned to head back to the rear of the bison.

"What is a Bloodspeaker?" Katara asked, her soft voice stopping Zuko in his tracks.

"An… an old legend," Zuko said hoarsely. _How much of this does she need to know?_ he thought, now second-guessing himself when faced with the prospect of _actually_ explaining.

"It didn't sound like an 'old legend' when… when that man said it," she said, traces of worry creeping into her voice.

"My people are… superstitious. We've been fighting for our entire history, many different peoples and spirits, and it is the _old_ battles, the legends that we tell each other around the fire at night, that really frighten us."

"Tell me."

"I… don't think that-"

"Tell. ME."

"They… they were monsters, the very first," Zuko said, his voice as flat as he could make it, attempting to conceal the rising dread in his heart. "The very first _enemy_. Thousands of years ago, before Akodo and the wars of unification even. They lived out in the Spice Islands and…" he shook his head, "I guess they were waterbenders. I don't think anybody ever made that connection."

"So, _obviously,_ they were _evil_ and deserved to be-"

"They were cannibals," Zuko said, cutting off Katara's sarcastic words, his own words beginning to flow out of him as though from far away, half remembering things that he was not entirely sure were only _his_ memories. "They practiced the worst sorts of tortures and human sacrifice and… worse, far far worse. They could reach… _inside_ a person and… control them. Not like what you did there. They captured people and… _twisted_ them, reached into their very hearts and souls and _twisted._ Then they sent them back to us; to rip our hearts out. Husbands would plunge their swords into their wives' throats. Mothers would spit their own children over cookfires and laugh. Sons and daughters would burn their homes down with their families locked inside." Zuko grimaced and looked away from the growing horror on Katara's face. "They were everything that we are not; _shadows_ in the light of the Sun. They took honor and duty and turned them on their heads, they sent out best and brightest back to us only to tear our very guts out. The Fire-Nation unification _happened_ because Akodo united the people of fire to stand against them. We started practicing seppuku _because_ we would not allow ourselves to be taken and used as weapons against our own people. They are the very _reason_ that we learned to fight."

Katara was speechless, her eyes wide in horror.

"We are not a kind and gentle people, Katara," Zuko finished with quiet finality. "You should be wary of anything that frightens _us._ "

"You… you think that… that I am… that I'm going to…" her eyes were now pleading, terrified.

"No! Nononono," Zuko said hurriedly, almost in a panic himself as he grabbed her shoulders, a hairs-breath from simply wrapping her up in his arms as he had wanted to do almost every day since Ba Sing Se. "You would _never_. I _know_ you, and I know that you're not that kind of monster. Other people though, when they see… when they see _that…_ they're going to come to the same conclusion that that commander had. Maho-Tsukai. Bloodspeaker. I… I just want you to be careful. A weapon you don't understand is just as dangerous to _you_ as it is to your enemy."

Katara released a shuddering breath. "So, you're not going to tell me it's evil?"

"I…" he needed to be honest with her. "I don't know, Katara. Every bone in my body says that what happened back there was… _wrong._ Unsettling, in some way. But… it's just a bending maneuver, another weapon, and a weapon is only as evil as the hand that wields it. And…" he looked deep into her blue-grey eyes, "I would believe that Holy Sun rose in the _west_ before I could ever believe that you could be evil. I _know_ you Shinjo Katara, and I trust you to make the right decision."

Katara closed her eyes and leaned forward, resting her forehead against his. "What would you do?" She asked. Zuko could tell that she wasn't asking about the Maho anymore.

She was asking about Yon-Rha.

"I would kill him," Zuko said immediately. "I would tell him who I was, what he had done, and then we would fight until one of us was dead. But… you are _not_ me. You… you are a better person than I am."

"Am I?" she whispered.

"'Where there is no mercy, there can be no Justice. How can anyone claim to rule without understanding?' Nobody evil could say something like that and make me believe it. It was one of the last things I said to my father before… before I told him to go fuck himself."

Katara snorted in a quick burst of laughter, "You _did?"_

Zuko nodded, rumbling in confirmation, and she smiled at him. But after a long beat that smile fell away as she remembered who she was talking to, and all the little ruinous facets of reality came creeping back in.

Forgiveness was _impossible_ for him.

"We'll be there soon," she said, turning away from him and facing the small island on the horizon, growing larger by the minute. "I'll be ready. Ready to _face_ him."

Zuko nodded and once again retreated back to Appa's saddle.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"We weren't behind the bush," Zuko snarled at the cowering piece of filth.

Yon-Rha had not been difficult to find. The island of Ketsushu wasn't a big place and everyone there knew the former naval commander. He had even been _in_ the marketplace when they had arrived, but Zuko and Katara had remained out of sight and followed him to a lonely road, away from prying eyes.

He had apparently had a sense that he was being followed, however, and had turned to set fire to a suspicious bush. But when he had turned back to the road, he found Zuko's fist crashing into his stomach, knocking him down and the wind from him.

"Whoever you are, t- take my money. Take whatever you want, I'll cooperate," Yon-Rha whimpered, his cowardice enraging Zuko even further.

He should have fought. He should have met force with force and attempted to do… _something_. But he only cowered in the dirt, only identifiable as a samurai by the wakizashi in his belt. That a member of the Fire-Nation military, no matter how retired, would act in such a way made Zuko want to end him there and then, but he restrained himself. The coward's life belonged to Katara.

"Do you know who I am?" she said, stepping forward. The sky itself opened up as though in answer, and a light rain began to blanket the scene.

"N-no?" Yon-Rha said, still cowering. "I mean… I… I'm not sure?"

"Oh, you had better remember me like your life depends on it!" Katara spat at him. "Why don't you take a closer look?"

He squinted at her, eyes clouding in memory before gasping in recognition and horror. "Yes… yes, I remember you. You're the little Unicorn girl, the one whose mother was the last of the waterbenders."

"No," Katara growled, "she lied to you. She was _protecting_ the last waterbender."

"W-what? Who?"

" _Me_." And at her word the world grew quiet.

The rain… had stopped.

All of it. Everywhere Zuko could see, the rain simply hung in the air motionless, like time itself had stopped, like the whole world was holding its breath. Then, slowly, Katara began to move her arms and every drop joined another, and another, till suddenly all the world contained was _ice_. Jagged terrible blades of ice, each and every one of them pointing at Yon-Rha.

And then with a guttural scream of rage Katara flung an ocean's worth of ice at the mute horrified man in front of her.

… but not a blade hit him.

With a crash, the ice simply dissolved back into frigid water and fell to the ground. Katara sagged along with it, releasing the rain.

"I did a bad thing!" Yon-Rha bleated. "I know I did! And you… you deserve revenge, so why don't you take _my_ mother instead? That- that would be fair."

 _His MOTHER?_ Zuko thought, his disgust with this creature, this craven pile of refuse pretending to be a man, growing to new heights. His mind had been made up long ago, but if it hadn't been, this display of shameless cowardice alone would have done it.

"I always wondered what kind of person could do what you did," Katara said softly, her eyes blazing as she advanced on him. "And I realize now that you _aren't._ You aren't even a _person_ , you have no… no honor, no soul, no _nothing._ You're just sad and pathetic and… _hollow_."

"Please! Please spare me," he whimpered. "I beg you."

" _YOU DARE TO BEG IN FRONT OF ME!"_ The world seemed to practically vibrate in Zuko's vision as his father's voice rolled through the very fiber of his soul, forcing him to dedicate the entirety of his willpower to stopping himself from just killing the man then and there

"But I won't let you bring me down with you," Katara said, ignorant of the battle in Zuko's brain. "As much as I _hate_ you, your… your _blood_ isn't worth it. Isn't worth becoming a _monster_ over. I have my honor and I won't let you taint it." She stopped in front of him, glaring down even as he trembled and shook in abject terror.

Then, with very little warning, her fist shot forward and, with a crunch, his nose was broken.

Then she turned her back on him and began to walk away.

… _Good,_ Zuko thought, unmoving, rage trailing away. _It's better this way._

"…did you break the armistice?" he said aloud as he removed his mask.

"Wha- what?" Yon-Rha stopped cradling his nose and looked up, horror once more taking residence on his face.

"Zuko? What are you-"

"Did you, Commander Jitsuyoteki Yon-Rha, open fire on Fire-Nation civilian vessels, resulting in their destruction? Then falsify reports to that effect, resulting in the resumption of war with the Southern Water-Tribe?" Zuko said as he moved forward to tower over the cowering piece of filth.

"Yes! I did. Please… I'm sorry… I know that I did… many _many_ bad things," Yon-Rha began to weep openly now.

Zuko sank onto his haunches beside the man, shaking his head. "You are very lucky that Sifu Katara is a merciful woman," he said quietly, looking at her. She sighed and relaxed slightly, giving him a sad look.

"Yes! She IS!" Yon-Rha cried loudly, bowing quickly from his position on his knees. "I thank you Sifu Katara. Thank you!"

"She is a truly _good_ person," Zuko said, a sad smile on his face, "a person who will walk away from here, hands unstained by your cowardly blood."

Yon-Rha nodded wildly, only too happy to agree.

"I, however-" and even from behind him Zuko could see the blood drain from Yon-Rha's face- "am NOT."

And then Zuko's blade of fire erupted from his fist, through the base of Yon-Rha's skull and upwards into his brain, killing him instantly.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"Why did you DO that!" Katara shouted furiously, trailing after Zuko as he walked through the rain, back to the woods where they had hidden Appa. "He was _mine!_ Mine to kill!"

"And you decided to spare him," Zuko said. He had ignited the man where he lay, whispering a small prayer for the dead as he had quickly dissolved into ashes. Then he had walked away, leaving a stunned Katara to chase after him.

"And you made it _worthless!"_ Katara spat, finally catching up to him, stepping in front of him and blocking his path.

"That man's fate was sealed the moment I learned his name," Zuko said quietly. "The only reason he lived as long as he did was because you had first rights to his life. You chose mercy, I chose justice."

"But _why?!_ Damn you, Zuko, WHY?"

"He was a war criminal and a stain on the honor of the-"

 **SLAP!**

She had slapped him, her eyes burning with intensity. "Don't you LIE to ME!"

"He… he _hurt_ you," Zuko said quietly, sagging slightly as he looked down and away.

" _YOU_ HURT ME!" Katara screamed.

"AND I WISH I COULD HAVE DONE IT TO MYSELF!" Zuko roared. "Every day I wake up hating myself, and every night I fall asleep asking myself if it was worth it! And you know what? It _wasn't!_ It wasn't,and I wake up _knowing_ that I would trade the salvation of the entire world, trade my people's honor, in a _heartbeat_ to undo it, and I cannot SLEEP for the SHAME of it!"

"Oh no! No-no-no-no, you don't get to be all angsty and suicidal! You made a _choice_ and you don't even CARE!"

"Don't _care?_ Of course I care! I just said I would rather be-"

"Then why aren't you trying to FIX it!" Katara screamed.

 _Fix it? She… she can't possibly…_

"You work so _hard_ to fix everything else, everyone else's problems," Katara continued, a wetness unrelated to the rain forming in her eyes. "You won't even _look_ at me! Why don't you-"

"Because I don't _deserve_ you," Zuko said fiercely. "You deserve… somebody better, somebody _worthy,_ somebody who won't _betray_ you. Somebody who isn't BROKEN like me! I _betrayed you,_ Katara,and there is _nothing_ I can do to fix that! _Forgiveness_ is impossible."

"Don't _deserve_ …" Katara asked, trailing off and staring at him for a long moment, the rain pouring down in buckets now.

"We should go," Zuko said quietly. He stepped to the side and started to continue on towards Appa "We need to get-

"Would you beg?" Katara asked, her voice barely audible over the downpour.

 _No._

"W-what?" Zuko said, going suddenly still.

"I know how you feel about begging, for anything. I know about your stupid pride. Would you _beg me_ to take you back?"

 _NO._

"K-Katara… you… you d- deserve somebody who-"

"One of these days, Akodo Zuko, you are going to learn that you don't get to make decisions for me. _I_ get to decide things, _I_ decide who I deserve. So, would you? Would you beg?"

And so Zuko considered for a moment, truly and deeply considered it, his single eye wide and on the ground, the rain plastering his hair to his head.

Could he _beg_ , debase himself like that, even for her?

 _No… no…_

He had begged his father and it had _destroyed_ him, ruined him, made him a monster.

 _No… no… no-no-no-no-no…_

He had _begged_ his father and that act of cowardice had cost him an _eye,_ and his _pride,_ and _six years_ of his life.

 _NO NO NO NO NO_ _ **NO!**_

Suddenly the rain was gone, and he was back in the Agni Kai arena in Otosan Uchi, his father shirtless and towering, a giant, advancing slowly on him, white-hot flames gathering at his fists.

" _ **You DARE to beg in front of me?"**_ The very world shook with the words.

Zuko cowered. It would happen _again_! It would all happen again! If he didn't have his pride, he was _nothing_! Less than nothing! Unworthy! Honorless! _Damned_! He could NOT beg!

" _ **You will LEARN respect-"**_ Ozai boomed.

But suddenly Katara was there, as tiny as he was before the towering frame of his father. She was shouting, but her words seemed muted, far away.

" _ **-in PAIN-"**_

It didn't matter. She couldn't see the Fire-Lord bearing down on her from behind, bearing down on them both. Panicked, Zuko pulled her behind him, as his father drew closer.

"NO! Please father! Please! Not her! Please! I b-b-be-"

" _ **-AND SUFFERING!"**_

He couldn't get it out.

He stumbled backwards, away from the Fire-Lord, falling to the ground. His collar bone was inexplicably broken again, his ribs cracked and shattered, white-hot in agony. He couldn't move. Couldn't flee. Couldn't escape. He needed to escape! The Fire-Lord's fist, burning hotter than the Sun, came down on Zuko's face and…

…did nothing.

There was nothing there but the sensation of coolness, of utter stillness, and in the face of that, the ghost of his father evaporated.

Zuko found himself back on Ketsushu, drenched in the still pouring rain, his head in Katara's lap, glowing blue water in her hands at his temples.

 _Oh. Right. I'm a crazy person_ , Zuko thought, blinking in confusion, taking in her face.

She looked so worried.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly.

Her eyebrows raised questioningly.

"This trip was supposed to be about you; getting you some catharsis. But I guess I fucked that up too, huh?"

"No, no you didn't," Katara said, her thumbs rubbing circles at Zuko's temples. "I got what I needed. I saw him and faced him and beat him. I don't think I'll dream about him anymore. But you…" she looked at him searchingly, "what just happened? Do you want to talk about it?"

"No." Zuko tried to rise, but found himself held very easily in place by Katara's grip on his skull.

"I will rephrase," she said, in her heart-wrenchingly no-nonsense tone, "what the _frost_ did your father _do_ to you? Talk about it. Now."

Zuko exhaled and inhaled deeply, his eye found hers.

"This," he said simply, pointing to his mangled face. "He did _this_ to me."

Katara tilted her head to the side in confusion for the briefest moment, then her eyes widened in realization and horror as her grip on his head tightened. "What… what the _fuck?_ Why?!"

"Because… because I begged him not to. I begged… and he… he… he made me a _monster._ "

"Oh… oh Zuko, why didn't you _tell_ me?" her tears joined the rain falling on his face.

"…I didn't want you to think I was weak."

Katara looked at him expressionlessly for a moment, then turned her face up to the sky. The water froze in place again as the world went still.

"I'll _kill_ him," Katara said in the stillness, "I'll rip his frostbitten heart out and eat it."

"And I… I'll try," Zuko said reaching up to touch her face.

She looked back down at him questioningly.

"I… I'll _beg_ … I'll beg for your forgiveness. I'll do anything you ask of me. I love you."

And then she smiled down at him. That amazing _dangerous_ smile that he hadn't seen in almost a year.

"Well… it's a start," she said.

And then the rain came crashing back down.

* * *

 **A/N:** **Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls! Welcome to the end of my version of The Southern Raiders and the beginning of the entirely supplementary series of words known colloquially as "the author notes!" I hope you enjoyed it, but if you didn't or did or couldn't or wouldn't or even shouldn't you should drop me a line and tell me about it. I love feedback, but you probably already know that.**

 **.**

 **Same ol'** **META** **all-new** **BITS**

 **.**

 **Now with 100% more asskicking:** **Katara and Zuko makes sense sneaking, just the two of them, into the tower in canon. It's just a bunch of teens against the very world itself at that point for them, so stealth makes sense. In** _ **this**_ **version however they've got a whole military apparatus on their side as well and as Zuko, at first, is planning to just take care of this situation on his own he, of course, uses the best tools at his disposal. Namely his head of military intelligence and a lot of shouting. But then Katara gets herself involved and as she is, as previously established, a BAMF, she proceeds to strut her stuff with aplomb.**

 **.**

 **Airborne Ranger!:** **I was never airborne. I personally do NOT see the value in jumping out of a** _ **perfectly good**_ **airplane thanks. That doesn't mean I don't have a lot of respect for those guys though, they've got a difficult job and they do it well. As a person who thinks about shit like this to deeply, I've also come to realize that the FNs nascent airforce is** _ **really**_ **a game changer. Even the loyalist FN, who has 99% of all the battle balloons, doesn't quite realize how big of a game changer this is. They are really just thinking of it as a Navy that doesn't need water, instead of as its own separate fighting force, deserving of its own tactical considerations and strategies. The one who DOES see that however is…**

 **.**

 **Sokka:** **I've read a lot of fics wherein Sokka is meant to be some sort of genius. Honestly, I think the whole Gaang is exceptional in some way, they're protagonists after all, and generally, that gets you powers and badassery in most narratives. But to me, where Sokka shines is not some unfounded raw intellectual talent, but in his improvisation and outside the box thinking. This is why he was so annoyed in the last chapter, he knows that he's good at that stuff, flying by the seat of his pants and snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. Its why he was perfectly comfortable just running off to boiling rock with no more planning than discovering its location.**

 **I also, upon watching the canon episode once again, am continually surprised. I don't understand canon!Sokka here. I understand that he's worried about Katara going off with just Zuko for protection but that never seems to be his actual voiced concern. Again I get that this is** _ **Katara's**_ **episode and so the logical narrative thing to do, namely have** _ **everyone**_ **(or at least have Sokka) come along with them is ignored. Honestly, I kinda agreed with Katara at that point in the show, like Sokka** _ **didn't**_ **love his mother the way Katara did. But then I tend to be a bit more of a vengeful person myself.**

 **.**

 **Bloodbending and Hama:** **Wooof was THIS an interesting write for me. In older Japanese culture (and probably even MORE so in L5R culture) blood is this HUGE taboo. You** _ **don't**_ **touch blood. You just don't. So to** _ **bend**_ **it? Wow. I imagine this taboo to be somewhat lessened in the fused world of my creation, the bloodspeakers have all been dead for 10000 years, but probably NOT as lessened in the FN. They're big on tradition after all.**

 **So, Zuko has a bit of a private freak out. As explained in the chapter bloodbenders were actually more known for their** _ **turning**_ **people to their side. As I foreshadowed, and I know at least one or two of you noticed, this subjugation of free will, is a HUGE deal for the FN and Zuko. Zuko was disgusted by the brainwashing in Ba Sing Se, and this old legend is why.**

 **Katara will talk about Hama a bit in the next chapter, but I just wanted to put in here, for your reference and mine, that it was a bit…** _ **darker**_ **in this version. But I'll talk about that… later.**

 **.**

 **The Decision:** **I won't lie to you, I WANTED her to do it. It's what I would have done, you kill my mother, I'm going to kill you. I admit that I am not a nice person. But I am a person with a desire to respect the character that I, and Canon, created.**

 **I couldn't see her do it.**

 **If Yon-Rha had attacked her instead of that innocent bush then, yeah, I can see Katara putting his honorless ass in the ground. I don't think my version of Katara is as innocent as canon!Katara, and nowhere** _ **near**_ **as innocent as Aang supposes her to be. Shinjo Katara will kill. She'll kill in self-defense or defense of others, she'll kill in hot-blood. Honestly, I think that in later years she will be able to kill someone as a form of capital punishment but, here and now, she has a larger concern.**

 **She is more worried about becoming a monster like Hama, especially after Zuko telling her about the bloodbenders of old. You will note that here, as in canon, (makes me wonder actually) she says she's ready to "face" him. Not to kill anymore, just face him.**

 **I wonder if her mind isn't made up then.**

 **Both I and Zuko can respect that.**

 **But if you thought that I, or my loyal minion Zuko, were going to let that piece of shit walk away you were quite wrong.**

 **.**

 **Zuko and Capital Punishment:** **Yon-Rha was a murderer. Plain and simple. He admitted to it. Sure this confession could, in any modern legal system, be dismissed as "under duress" but this is not that. This is Zuko, who is a very black and white person and who really really wants to kill this guy. Not only is he a murderer, and a war criminal and all of that, but he HURT Katara. This is why Katara calls him a liar, she** _ **knows**_ **that's why, she just wants Zuko to say it.**

 **She doesn't know about the begging though, and she is suitably freaked out by Zuko's breakdown and her accidental part in causing it. Because that gives her something to focus on, something to try and nurture/fix, she's going to be able to put off the vast emotional breakdown she's about to have until the next chapter.**

 **.**

 **So, there's that. I know that this chapter, as it will be in every fic and interpretation, is wildly controversial. YMMV on all things and I would love LOVE to hear your thoughts on the subject. I hope, regardless, that you found my writing worthy of your time and will continue to do so.**

 **.**

 **About next week:** **So… there has been a bit of a snag. My brain decided, about 3 days ago, that I was missing a chapter.**

 **Next week's chapter.**

 **I have been rushing to fulfill this lack and have assembled a rough first draft, but… well…**

 **Alright, I'll just say it.**

 **Next week might be delayed.**

 **I'll try not to, but this** _ **might**_ **not be a bad time to slow down a bit and really get the next few chapters done. I hope you'll all be understanding.**

 **You are?**

 **Oh, gosh, thank you!**

 **.**

 **Thanks again for reading! FFN tells me I averaged over 100 hits/day last week and I am SUPER stoked. Remember to like/kudos/subscribe/and comment.**

 **Positive reinforcement. It's vital to my… (/leans over and turns sarcasm knob to 11)** _ **sensitive artist soul**_ **.**

 **.**

 **.**

 **NEXT WEEK on a very special "Avatar: The Last Dragon"...**

 **Zuko and Katara have a conversation about rice.**

 **TUNE IN. Same Zuko time, Same Zuko channel!**

 **Original post date: 24 February 2019**


	14. The Cave

**A/N:** **The Following is Rated D; for Dialog.**

 **It corresponds, chronologically, with the end of S3E16 "The Southern Raiders."**

 **Reader discretion is advised.**

* * *

Chapter 14 "The Cave"

* * *

 **Early Summer, year 12 in the reign of Fire-Lord Ozai**

"That's not how you cook rice," Katara said quietly.

As far as non-sequiturs went, it was still a rather odd way to begin a conversation. At least a conversation that would prove as important as this one.

Some hours earlier, almost immediately after Zuko and Katara had climbed on to Appa and departed the island of Ketshusu, the rain had begun to steadily intensify, eventually becoming the howling torrent of a full-blown, if unseasonably early, monsoon. Katara had turned the reigns over to Zuko and had, with her usual impressive skill, bent them a path through the near solid curtain of water that descended from the heavens.

Unfortunately, she had not slept in the last few days and the weight of the bending she had done in the hours previous dragged at the sweeping gestures of her limbs. The rain eventually came crashing back down on the three of them in spite of her efforts but, luckily, she had bought Zuko enough time to spot a small rocky island, the tip of a dead volcano, emerging from the sea. He had, teeth gritted in the face of the storm, somehow managed to bring them down safely, one hand on Appa's reins, one arm around a barely conscious Katara. He thanked the Sun and all the spirits that were that there was a cave not fifty yards from where they landed as he, carrying Katara and followed by a bedraggled sky-bison, trotted his way within.

After a brief look to ensure that the cave was bereft of predatory animals, Zuko had dried himself and Katara with a bend. Then he had sat her down as comfortably as he could on the stone for the brief moment it took to find the bedrolls he had packed in their luggage.

After he had unpacked, ensconced Katara inside her bedroll, and re-dried himself ( _twice,_ in the face of Appa's repeated desire to shake himself clean) he methodically set about setting up a rough base camp.

Katara had not been in the most preparatory frame of mind at the beginning of the adventure, and so Zuko had endeavored to pack whatever he thought they might need. Extra clothes, bed rolls (which until now had gone entirely unused,) hardy firebase, spare weapons and a maintenance kit, cooking supplies, a small sack of rice, and, as always, his copy of _LEADERSHIP,_ as well as a few other books that had been selected for their potential utility. All of it secured in protective leather wet-bags against the exact circumstances that they had found themselves in.

A fire established, and a tripline strung across the mouth of the cave as a precaution, Zuko relaxed minutely and set about making some food. Katara had apparently woken at some point during all of this and only after he had poured some water over a cup of rice in his cook pot did she draw his attention with her non-sequitur.

"…What?" Zuko said stupidly, more in shock at her talking to him, unprovoked, and without any anger, or any emotion at all in her voice.

"That's," she struggled out of her blankets to sit up, " _not_ how you make rice."

"…Not how you make… Katara, it's _rice._ It is one of the _three_ things I _do_ know how to make."

"Well," she said, smiling through obvious exhaustion, "I guess you only know how to make _two_ things then. Because you been doing it wrong the whole time you've been-"

The fact that "the whole time" meant that she had been watching him cook his own meals since the Western Air Temple was not lost on him.

"It's just _rice_ ," Zuko said, finding himself mildly argumentative with her on pure reflex. "You put it in water, you boil the water, you wait, and then you eat."

"Shows what _you_ know," she said softly. "Rice isn't simple… at all. It depends on what you're having with it, what kind of rice it is, what kind of pot and fire you have to work with. But _you…_ you don't even rinse it first."

"… _Rinse_ it?"

"Yes, you have to…" she bent the water, now a foggy white color, out of the cook pot with a grunt of effort then, with a flick of her hand, she sent it flying out of the mouth of the cave, "get rid of any dirt, and the extra starch, so that it doesn't clump too much. You… you only want sticky rice if you're making rice balls or-" her voice had taken on a low lecturing tone, as though the words were the only thing moving her forward.

"Katara, you should be resting, not-"

"-have to… have to remember to add a dash of salt for… for…" she exhaled a shuddering breath and slumped forward, tears in her eyes. Zuko was there in less than a heartbeat almost knocking the pot over in his haste to get to her.

"What- What- Katara? Are you hurt? What-" Zuko began to examine her frantically for injuries as she wept into his shoulder.

"I… I am so… _sorry,_ " she said, weeping into his shoulder.

"…What?" Now Zuko was just confused.

But Katara didn't answer, she just continued to shake in exhausted emotion in his arms while Zuko, for the most part, felt a great amount of guilt. He had absolutely no right to hold her like this, and certainly no right to feel, in so doing, more at peace than he had in almost a year.

Not while she was crying, most likely over something that was his fault.

But regardless of that gnawing guilt in his gut, he just held her there as she shook and wept and sobbed for a long time.

"We… we should probably talk," Katara said eventually, breaking the silence that had settled over the cave after her sobbing had subsided.

 _Oh ash,_ Zuko thought.

"All… alright," he said aloud, releasing her, and hauling himself to his feet a few steps away, to give himself some room. Enough room to… to…

 _Ok. Don't… don't… just DON'T, ok? Just get it over with. Father is not here, and she is NOT going to hurt you. Just get it over with._

And so, with all the trepidation of a man about to cut off his own gangrenous limb to save his life, Zuko sank to his knees and prepared to beg, to grind his face in the dirt in abject humiliation.

 _Ok. Deep breaths. I… I can do th-_

"What are you doing?" Katara asked, still wiping tear residue from her eyes.

"Uh… well… you said that… I mean, I… I said that I would… I will try to-"

"No!" she said, seeming mildly horrified. "Zuko… just… stop. I'm not going… I'd never make you do _that._ "

"But you… you said-"

"That was before… _before_ ," she said. "I'd never do that to you. I didn't know about…" she gestured vaguely at his face.

A part of Zuko wanted to growl and snap, again almost purely by reflex, that he did not require her pity. But he didn't. Most of the impulse was almost immediately buried under another tsunami of guilt at the mere _idea_ of snapping at her now. Some part of all of that must have shown in his face however as Katara's red-rimmed eyes narrowed at him.

"Don't," Katara snapped, composure fully reestablished in a heartbeat in her obvious irritation. "Don't you _dare_ get all sulky because I feel bad for you."

"Sulky? I don't sulk."

"You, Akodo Zuko, are a _champion_ sulker. If you can't punch something into submission you just sit and brood about it. That's what…" she looked downward at the ground, "that's what you've been doing this whole time."

"Katara… I…" he exhaled, "You said it yourself, forgiveness is impossible. For me most of all, I-"

"Forgiveness is impossible for Yon-Rha. I could never forgive him. But you… I think I'm ready to forgive you."

Zuko sagged where he knelt. "Katara, you… you can't. I… I _can't_ even… Why would you-"

"Because I love you."

Zuko grew tremendously still, his eye still on the stone floor.

"You _do_?"

The words seemed to fall out of without his consent, the sound them small in the cavern, small like something fragile.

"I have tried so _so_ hard not to be," Katara said, "but you just keep showing up and being… being _you_."

"…I'm sorry."

"Even in the weeks right after Ba Sing Se," she continued, "and I was spending every waking moment just trying to get Aang back on his feet, a part of me just wanted nothing more than for you to walk in and just-"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm-"

Then suddenly _she_ was there, wrapping him up in her arms as Zuko fought futilely to stop the growing wetness in his single eye.

"I'm sorry too," she said.

"Katara, you don't have anything to be-"

"Of course I do. There were any number of things I might have done, _should_ have done. Had I just… had I just stopped and thought about it. Had I thought about things from your perspective, had I not… not acted like I was ashamed to be in love with you. Maybe things would have turned out differently if I had just told you… just how much I loved you."

"…No," Zuko growled after a moment of gathering himself. "Unacceptable."

There was a beat of absolute stillness.

"… _Excuse_ me?" Katara leaned away from him and there was danger once again in her blue-grey eyes.

"That is entirely unacceptable," Zuko said, yellow eye locked on hers. "I will _not_ allow you to blame yourself for Ba Sing Se. _I_ betrayed _you_ and-"

Katara goggled at him for a moment before she found some words to throw back at him. "I have _some_ blame! I'm the responsible one! I should have found a way to… to… to keep you safe!"

"Keep _me_ safe?" Zuko barked. "What in the ASH is that supposed to mean?"

"It means that you're the kind of idiot that just rushes into things without ANY consideration!" She had her hands on her hips now as she glared at him.

"ME? This from the woman who just dragged me part of the way across the planet without thinking to pack food or a change of clothes!"

"I was a bit preoccupied! I knew you'd take care of it!" She snapped, her finger now back in its familiar spot, poking him in the chest. "At least I had a better plan than 'attack the North Pole during the full moon!'"

"Regardless," Zuko said with a growl, "I will NOT allow you to hold yourself responsible for MY mistake."

"I can take responsibility if I want to! You can't tell me I…" suddenly she trailed off, looking at him strangely. Then with an odd snort, she flung her face back into his chest.

 _Damnit. What the Ash were you thinking? Idiot!_

"Spirits, I'm sorry Katara, please don't…" he trailed off and frowned down at her for a moment. She wasn't making the same soft crying noise he unfortunately had become used to. Instead, she was…

"Are you… _laughing?_ " Zuko said, utterly confused.

"Oh… we are just ridiculous," Katara said once she had gained enough composure to talk. "Only you and I could argue about who _gets_ to be at fault for something."

Zuko nodded in agreement, but his still mildly confused frown remained in place. "You are right, as usual, but I still cannot allow you to blame yourself for-"

"Fifty percent," Katara said, punctuating her words with softer jabs to his chest. "I was fifty percent responsible for Ba Sing Se. There will be no further negotiation."

Zuko opened his mouth to retort but this time _was_ silenced by the growing danger in Katara's eyes. He exhaled in a puff and nodded his head. "Very well, fifty percent."

"Good. Going forward you are going to have to remember that I get a say. I will _not_ be dictated to."

"Go- going forward?"

"Yes. Going forward. We are going to have to have a talk, and you are going to have to remember a few things while we do. I will not be told what I can or cannot do, and that there is _nothing_ ," this was accompanied by a rather fierce poke to the chest, "that you could say to me that would make me think you are weak. You are one of the strongest people I know."

Still mostly just processing this, Zuko nodded his assent and Katara released him and slid away to sit in front of him. Her face took on a pained and still exhausted look as she brought her eyes back to him.

"Why did you kill him?" she said, now suddenly tense. "His life was mine, but you took it anyways. It was disrespectful to me, and to my mother's memory."

"Katara, that man's mere _existence_ was a blight on the… on _my_ Nation's honor. His fate was sealed the moment that I learned his name. He was a murderer and an honorless criminal… but I am sorry. I did not intend any disrespect… but I don't understand how it was so."

"You… invalidated my choice," Katara said, taking a moment to find the right words. "You made my decision worthless and… you," she looked away from him again, "you can't keep killing people for me. You just can't."

"I didn't kill him for you. I killed him because he was truly honorless, and it was my duty as an officer of the Fire-Nation and a potential sovereign to see justice done. I would have killed him for what he did had I never even met you. It was only by your mercy that his death was… quick."

"So, you're going to try and tell me you didn't want to kill him?" Katara asked.

 _Oh, I WANTED to kill him,_ Zuko thought. _I'd have killed him twice if it were possible._

"I will not deny that I found some… _satisfaction_ in his death. He _hurt_ you, Katara. You cannot expect me to ignore that."

"And that Di Li agent? In Ba Sing Se? Did he give you 'satisfaction?'"

"I… suppose. There is some satisfaction to be found in being the second to an honorable man."

"Second? His second to what?"

"The second? It is the one who offers release when the pain of seppuku becomes too much."

"He committed seppuku?" Katara said, her eyes widening in surprise, then narrowing in outrage. "…Oh, I am going to _kill_ your sister."

"Uh… I'd rather you didn't. I mean if it comes down to your life… or hers… I guess that-"

"She… she _congratulated_ me on 'tricking' you into doing _my_ dirty work!"

"That… does sound like Azula, yes."

"I was just _so_ mad," Katara said. "I thought you… I thought you had changed."

"Changed how?"

"I thought… I thought you weren't going to do things like that anymore? Weren't going to… kill people like that anymore."

"Not kill anymore? Katara, I am a samurai, I try to behave with honor, but that doesn't mean I am unwilling to kill." He frowned. "I am _not_ Aang."

She sighed deeply looking tremendously sad as she did so.

"How is this going to work then? I can't… I can't be with someone who doesn't place any value on life." She looked back into Zuko's eyes. "I just can't."

"…Why would my willingness to kill mean I don't value life?"

"But… if you value life you have to try to preserve it!"

"I do. But some people _must_ be killed. Either to protect another, or simply as a warning to others who would act dishonorably. Crime cannot be tolerated, or it will simply fester and spread. 'Every life that is sacrificed must be done so that another might live. To do otherwise is to act with dishonor.'"

"And you think that applied to Yon-Rha?"

"I think that someone who would do something so dishonorable to your mother had most likely done something similar before… and after. I think that without honor he could not be trusted to continue living without spreading harm to others."

"So… you _do_ value life?"

"Of course I do. Compassion is one of the tenants as well and I… I have 'a duty to care for all peoples, everywhere.'" Zuko looked away mildly embarrassed. "You taught me that." When he managed to bring his eye back to Katara his heart leapt to find her beaming at him.

 _Dangerous. I think I would do almost anything for that smile._

Eventually, her smiled faded away and was replaced by a contemplative look. "But you can't be _sure._ Death is so final, Zuko. What if you make a mistake… like you did with Shyu?"

"Who?"

"Yogo Shyu," Katara said, her face darkening. "The Fire Shaman you killed in Roku's Shrine."

Zuko thought back for a moment, remembering the shugenja that had openly admitted to treason against the Fire-Lord and the summary justice he had dispensed.

"Oh. I had forgotten."

"Yes, I can see that," Katara snapped. "Did _he_ deserve death?"

"I… suppose not."

"See? That's why you can't just go around cutting people's heads off!"

"I am not the Kami, I make mistakes. If… Yogo Shyu was truly blameless he will be welcomed home into the arms of his ancestors, to await his rebirth." He paused recalling back to that day on Fire Crescent Island, the look of calm certainty on the shugenja's face. "I think he must be. He at least died with honor." He gave a small nod. "I will remember him from now on."

Katara gave an exasperated huff. "That doesn't bring him back."

"It does not, but I would have rather sent him home to his ancestors than turned him over to the metsuke. They would have treated him… harshly." He shook his head. "I am not perfect, Katara, but perfect isn't a real thing."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Something my uncle always used to say. 'Perfection isn't a place,' he would say, 'it's a direction. Like going east. You can head that way forever and never reach it.'"

"Smart man, your uncle."

"Yes. Much smarter than I am anyway."

Katara suddenly looked rather cross, but it faded into a more contemplative look in only a moment.

"...I love you, grumpy-bear."

Zuko cocked his only eyebrow in a question. Not that he wasn't grateful for her admission, but he wasn't sure what it currently had to do with how stupid he was.

"It's my new policy," Katara said smirking at him. "Every time you say something stupid, about how you aren't smart enough or good enough, I am going to remind you that I love you." The smirk grew into a stunning smile. "And only _I_ am allowed to tell you when you're being an idiot, not you."

"Katara, there is no honor in lying to oneself. I know that I am not the most-"

"So, are you saying that I would love a fool?"

"Uh… well… That's not-"

"Do you offer me such… _disrespect_?" she asked, imbuing the last word with a veritable forest-fire of sarcasm.

"No! That's not… well… I mean…"

She laughed again, almost a giggle in her still present exhaustion. "I just have to remember to always put things in your ridiculous Fire-Nation-y terms."

Zuko's brow furrowed in very mild irritation.

"You said you trust me to make the right decisions?" Katara asked, waiting for Zuko's small nod before continuing. "Well, you're just going to have to trust that I'm making the right decision about you."

His brow furrowed more, but in a more contemplative manner.

"Ok," he said after a moment.

"Ok? Just like that?"

"Yes. I suppose it is really just a corollary on rule three."

"You _really_ like rules, don't you?" Katara said shaking her head at him.

"Yes. I suppose I do. Although most of the old rules might need to be discarded. They were situational and serve no purpose now. Rule nine is especially pointless now that… uh… well, there may be a few people in the darkest corners of the Earth-Kingdom who don't know, but everyone else…" he trailed off as he caught sight of Katara's face, once again slackened in sadness.

 _Damnit all, what did I do?_

"I… I'm sorry about that," Katara offered, her voice tremulous. "I should have never insisted that… I mean I…"

"What?"

"I made you feel like I was ashamed of you, didn't I?"

"I… thought secrecy was a sound tactical decision," Zuko said quietly. "Had your brother or Aang learned about us, violence would have inevitably ensued."

"That wasn't an answer."

"Katara… I just tried not to think about it too much. It wasn't… wasn't that big of a deal. I'm Fire-Nation, and we really don't… _do_ public displays of affection anyways. I was happy enough that you gave me a few hours a day. It was more than I ever expected, and _far_ more than I ever deserved."

"I _love_ you, grumpy-bear."

"...See, now I'm going to think you're calling me an idiot every time you say that," Zuko said with a snort, heart remarkably buoyant in spite of it.

"Well, maybe someday, when you stop saying nonsense, I'll lift that rule." She scooted closer to him and took his much larger hands in hers. "You are _worth_ more than a few hours a day. Maybe if I'd told you that earlier… I'd… we'd… spirits… I'm sorry, Zuko, I'm…"

"I think that _I_ have a new rule," Zuko said flatly. " _You_ are no longer allowed to second-guess _yourself_ about Ba Sing Se. If 'negotiations' are complete, then the matter is settled. Behind us."

"But-"

"We both made mistakes, we both regret them, we both wish we could go back and change them. No matter that that is both impossible and, were it not, would likely doom the world. So, the matter is-"

"Doomed? How would the world be doomed?"

"Uh… well… We wouldn't know about my father's mad plan, and we'd have been caught unawares when the comet came? I mean there are a great many things I'd never have learned if…"

"Like what?"

She was looking up at him curiously, in a strangely genuine interest.

"Well… uh… stuff?"

"Zuko, we haven't really talked to one another in over a year. We should… well, we should probably catch up?"

"Actually, we should probably get some sleep. You're pretty tir-" his words were cut off by a sharp jab to his chest.

"Talk," Katara growled, masking her exhaustion with ferocity.

"Well… I… conquered Ba Sing Se? I didn't think you would want to talk about th-"

"I don't," she said with a sniff. "I meant…" her irritation drained away into a softer look, "What happened when you went home? You didn't talk about it much, but I could tell you really missed it."

"I… yes… I did. But it wasn't anything like I remembered."

He glanced up and found her nodding at him encouragingly.

"My Nation is dying, Katara," Zuko said quietly. "My father, and this war have driven it face-first into the ground. The peasants and the minor samurai families are starving, the government is full of honorless thieves and yes-men, all led by a madman." He shuddered at the shame of it. "My father is insane and he's driving Azula to it as well. Driving my whole country into the very darkest pits of Jigoku. You must have seen some of it when you were…"

"Yeah, Jang Hui was a pretty good example."

Zuko winced. "Yes… It was. I assume that the river wasn't yet cleaned when you got there? I am truly sorry about that; the local lord was dragging his feet for the longest-"

"When I was… Zuko, we were there at the same time."

He blinked. "You were?" He grunted in a combination of surprise and realization. "Perhaps that's how she knew to take your face."

"...What?"

"Oh, there was a spirit, the Painted Lady, that took on your guise while I was there. To make it clear just how displeased she was I assume. I was reasonably certain that she was going to kill me right there and then, but luckily Bo and-" he stopped as he realized that Katara was shaking in suppressed emotion, her hand over her mouth.

"Katara? Are you ok? I know that Jang Hui was-"

Katara dropped her hand, threw her head back, and laughed, loudly this time, her voice echoing through the cavern.

Zuko stared at her, rather nonplussed.

"Oh, I can't _believe_ you," she managed, her eyes now filled with laughter-induced tears, a sight which Zuko was enormously grateful for even as he waited for her to calm down enough to explain _exactly_ what was so funny about a murderous river spirit.

It was a rather long wait.

"I… I was…" she managed to get out before she snorted, adorably, and fell over as another gale of laughter hit her, the sound of which made Zuko indescribably happy.

If not any less confused.

 _Spirits she must be REALLY tired. What under the Sun could be this f-_

" _I_ was the Painted Lady," she finally gasped, descending into riotous giggles after the pronouncement.

"… I'm sorry?" Zuko said, still in the depths of confusion.

She managed, after another long minute, to somehow get a grip on herself long enough to clarify.

"That was _me,_ with the veil and the frostbending. Oh spirits, how could you not have-" she cut off as she began laughing again.

Zuko sat there in mute silence for a moment, contemplating this new and interesting piece of data.

"Excuse me for a moment," he said. Then he rose to his feet and stalked his way over to their luggage.

Once there he rooted around for a brief moment until he found the thick tome that was _Metaphysical Encounters and the Lessons of Such._ He had not anticipated any spiritual troubles on this adventure, but he had not really been sure _what_ to anticipate, and he always preferred to have something and not need it as opposed to needing something and not having it. He eyed the weighty tome mistrustfully for a moment…

… then he set it on fire.

"What was _that_ about?" Katara asked after he returned to sit in front of her again, wiping ash from his hands as he did so.

"That… was the… _worst_ book. Ever," Zuko growled.

"Ok?" Katara said with a smirk. "Bo did seem to think you didn't know it was me, but I didn't believe her at the time."

"Bo _knew?_ Oh, that's just… She is fired. I mean it. I'll send her back to-"

"I like Bo, she's quite smart. You probably want to keep her around."

Zuko grumbled, though he agreed that her continued presence was probably for the best.

"She… she might have saved your life," Katara said, suddenly sounding sad and as exhausted as she looked. "If she hadn't… If I had known then how to… I don't know what I would have done." She looked up at him again, eyes seeming hollow. "I… I might have…" she looked on the verge of tears again and Zuko, always in favor of an active and vigorous defense, pulled her to him again.

 _She needs sleep,_ he thought as she fought tears, her face burrowed into his shoulder. _She's all over the place._

While Katara wasn't a firebender Zuko was reasonably certain that this much emotional whiplash wasn't good for anyone.

"You are tired," he said aloud. "We can talk about this later."

"No. I… I need to… Need to… We have things we need to talk about. And… Hama is probably one of them."

Zuko grunted in acceptance, but in deference to his own ideas of what _needed_ to happen, he scooped her the rest of the way into his lap and, with a controlled exhale, he elevated his core temperature a few degrees. He estimated that she would be asleep within minutes.

"There was this… this old _mad_ woman on the island of Ketsuki-ka who said her name was Chuda Hama," Katara began, after sighing and settling onto Zuko's chest. "She said she was a Unicorn, and a survivor of something called 'Water's Fall,' and that she could… could teach me things. Teach me about our heritage, the styles of the Unicorn. I'd… I'd never had a teacher in my own people's style…" she squirmed in disquiet in Zuko's arms for a moment. "I've been the last southern waterbender for a long time and… she was brilliant. She showed me things that I had never even _dreamed_ were possible. There's water _everywhere_ ; in plants, deep underground, in the air and… and in people too." She shivered and curled in on herself a little bit.

Zuko decided, right there and then, that he hated Hama. But he said nothing, he simply rested his chin on top of Katara's head and breathed himself warm.

"She was… she was kidnapping people. She was… bloodbending them, making them walk into a nearby cave… and… and… the _things_ she was doing to them. It sounded like it started as simple experimentation at first but then… she started to _enjoy_ it. She was hurting them so badly, and she was enjoying it. She said they deserved it because they were Fire-Nation; the Fire-Nation had ripped us apart, so we should just… just… Then, when I said I didn't want to, she… she tried to use it on me. But I was too strong for her. Then she used it on Sokka and Aang and Toph and… and I…" despite Zuko's efforts she began to cry again into his chest.

 _Spirits, I hope this creature is dead, or I'm going to have to make another stop on Ketsuki-ka._

"I _had_ to. I HAD to do it," she said, shaking almost violently in his arms. "I had to… to _bend_ her to make her stop. She was going to make Sokka kill Aang! And then she just grinned at me, this horrible sickly grin and said that her 'work was done.' And then she… she…" she curled in on herself further, "she bent _herself._ "

Zuko's face twitched slightly, and the campfire flashed red for a second before settling back into normal orange.

"I _felt_ it happen. Felt it in every drop of her blood as she bent her own _heart_ … and I realized how… how _easy_ it would be. So very _very_ easy. And I can't ever _not_ know that. Can't ever go back, can't ever just _see_ a person without knowing that I could just-"

"Are you warm enough?" Zuko asked quietly, cutting her off before she could drive herself into a frenzy of shame and guilt that he found so _so_ familiar.

"W- what?" she craned her neck to look up at him.

"Are you warm enough?" he repeated.

"I… yes… thank you, but-"

"You are aware that I am warm because I am firebending?"

She just nodded, still in semi-exhausted confusion.

"This is the same ability that I can very easily use to kill people," Zuko said mildly. "If I use my bending to make tea, or to murder, it is still _only_ a bend. If I use a hammer to build a house or bury it in an enemy's skull, it is still _only_ a hammer. It is a _person_ who is good or evil."

She still looked up at him searchingly.

"I _love you,_ snuggle-bunny." He said it like she had before, so that she knew that he thought she was being foolish. Somehow her brow creased downwards in irritation at the same time her mouth curved upwards in a smile.

"You can nearly be as foolish as I am sometimes," Zuko continued, "but you are a _good_ person, Shinjo Katara. No matter the things you _could_ do, no matter that you have seen horror, no matter that you have done things you regret. You are a good person, and I love you, more than I love my own life."

She started crying again, and Zuko silently cursed himself for a fool.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-" Zuko began.

"I just wish that you could see that that applies to you too," she said through her tears.

 _...what?_ Zuko blinked.

Zuko had really just been speaking off the cuff, trying to coax the woman that he loved back into some semblance of calm. But he believed the words he had spoken were true, and if they _were_ …

Maybe he wasn't as damned as he had thought, and he pondered that for a long silent minute.

He looked down to ask Katara what she thought, but found, much to his greater relief, that she had fallen sound asleep.

...and was now snoring slightly.

 _Good. She needs the rest,_ Zuko thought, resting his chin on her head again. _I suppose I do as well._ His eye flicked to the darkened opening of the cave where, behind the rain, he could feel the Sun sinking below the horizon.

 _A few hours then. I think I can manage a few… hours…_

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

The Sun was up.

Zuko couldn't see it, the sky was still a thick grey rainy veil, but the Sun _was_ up, and he could feel it.

Yet, despite the rain, he was warm. Warm like he'd never imagined he would be again.

He had managed to scoot his way across the floor, his arms still full of sleepy waterbender, over to the abandoned bedroll and thrown a blanket over the two of them before sleep had claimed him entirely the night before.

 _The night… before…_

He had slept through the entire night.

Slept _soundly_.

But now that he had slept longer than he was reasonably certain he had slept in at least two years he needed to get up. The Sun was up, all the way past the horizon and, even though its light was muted by the still present monsoon outside, its fire stirred his own.

The issue, however, was that Katara was still asleep… and on top of his, now slightly numb, arm.

 _Not a problem. She's bound to be up in a few minutes. I can wait._

But a few minutes passed, and she hadn't moved. She only breathed, slowly and rhythmically, informing him that she wasn't anywhere near wakefulness.

 _Well… shit. Now what?_

He had only woken up next to her the once, that first time, on green silk back in Ba Sing Se. She had been _wide_ awake then, but other than that one instance, she had never spent the night. The operational secrecy of their relationship had been contingent on her nightly returns to the upper ring.

So, obviously, he'd never had any experience with this particular situation. Mai always woke when he did, went back to sleep as soon as he left, and then emerged after the Sun had finally broken the horizon. That was typical for everyone in the Fire-Nation, bender or not.

But, apparently, Katara was so tired from the previous few days activity that she was not ready to rise any time in the near future, and Zuko certainly didn't want to wake her. Not only was she breathtakingly beautiful curled up there next to him, but if she was still asleep then it was obvious that she _needed_ the rest.

The primary problem was that, not only was Zuko very awake, he also needed to make water.

There were methods of suppressing that sort of thing. Obviously, a soldier could not fall out of formation on a march simply to answer the call of nature, but any such mental deterrents were an exercise in futility in the face of the sounds of still cascading rain coming down outside of the cave.

 _Ok. Fine. New challenge. I can do this. I have broken into a multitude of enemy fortresses and prisons. I can do THIS._

And so, the Grey Ghost initiated, what seemed, at the moment at least, the most important mission of his life.

Operation: Make Water without Waking Water.

 _Not the best operational name… ash with it… it'll do._

The operation named and nominally planned, he banished thought. One of the fundamental principles of stealth was to achieve something like the Mushin that his uncle had once spoken of. Thoughts were _loud_ , and true stealth required silence in the self before it could be achieved in the self's surroundings.

That achieved, he proceeded to move his arm, the trapped one, in the faintest of motions. He slowly flexed his arm up and down in time with Katara's breathing and began to move his free arm, only a hairs width at a time, towards the as of yet unused bedroll. He reasoned that he would need to replace his arm with something, so as to maintain the angle of Katara's neck, thus preserving the sleep status-quo.

Then, with all the precision and caution of a jeweler crafting a crown for an angry and possibly vengeful monarch, Zuko gradually replaced his arm with the bedroll imposter. Katara grimaced at one point, and he froze for several long minutes as he ensured that her breathing was otherwise unaltered.

Eventually, his arm was freed, and he turned to the second and more dangerous obstacle.

Her leg.

She had kicked one leg over his hips at some point during the night, and Zuko marveled at how tired _he_ must have been to not have registered it. But now it was there, and it was perilously close to…

Well… it was _close_ … to something that Zuko was not certain that Katara wanted to be touching yet. Whatever they were to one another at this point, Zuko was not certain that it was something that involved… _that,_ quite yet. Certainly she had, in brief and frenzied bursts, been all _about_ touching _that_ only a week ago… but that was then and this was now and Zuko was not comfortable with making assumptions with regards to _that_ and touching at present.

There was also the problem that, as a nineteen-year-old male, _that_ also tended to "rise with the Sun," with or without Katara's presence.

A presence that was very much present at present.

 _Why is nothing in my life ever simple?_ Zuko thought before remembering that he wasn't supposed to be thinking.

Rolling or sliding directly away from her was impossible as it would bring _that_ into contact with the leg she had thrown over him. Zuko, for reasons known only to him, was fairly certain that would result in an immediate mission failure. She would wake up, realize _exactly_ what was prodding her, and then would begin making unfortunate and erroneous assumptions. That was the problem, there would be assumptions. _He_ had made assumptions in the hazy rather ill-thought-out manner that came before he'd reached full consciousness. Assumptions based on what had happened the _last time_ he had woken up in Katara's company. No matter that a single instance did not constitute a pattern. A part of his brain, the part that cared nothing for propriety and _everything_ for the scent of seaspray and jasmine and beautiful brown hair, had suggested that he should wake Katara up and really _really_ ensure that a pattern _was_ made.

Which was another factor in _that's_ current problematic position.

But Zuko was a samurai. He had honor. He was a _prince_. And princes did not _go_ where they were not wanted as far as young ladies were concerned. Zuko's uncle had given him many an embarrassing lecture on the subject, and Zuko had always, after he was done being absolutely mortified, taken them to heart.

And so, Akodo Zuko, Prince of Fire, leader of an army and heir-apparent to Akodo's throne, began to, using only his fingers, slowly pull himself downward, footward, so that he wouldn't wake the woman sleeping next to him with an accidental brush of the part of his anatomy that, independent of his own conscious mind, was straining somewhat painfully at the fabric of his grey kuroko pants.

After several long minutes of silent effort, he was victorious.

He rose and, after silently ensuring that Katara was still covered by the blanket, crept to the mouth of the cave to finally answer nature's call with another silent sigh of relief.

That accomplished he returned to the campsite…

...only to find that Katara had rolled over on to her back.

 _Ash and bone. You couldn't have done that earlier?_ he thought in a mix of amusement and irritation.

Katara, of course, gave no reply, except a small mildly adorable snort on one of her still sleeping breaths.

As Zuko set about making some breakfast he gradually lost all sense of stealth. At first, he had winced at the tiniest clink of metal on metal as he set up the cook pot.

But Katara remained dead to the world.

After rinsing the rice, much to his consternation in the face of not _really_ knowing what that entailed, he had glanced over to Katara after the whooshing crackle of his firebending seemed to echo around the cavern.

Katara didn't move a muscle, not even as Appa woke and gave Zuko a quiet friendly growl in greeting.

Zuko fed Appa as the rice boiled, all the while watching to see if Katara would wake up.

Instead of waking, she began snoring.

Snoring rather _loudly_.

Zuko glanced at Appa and found the beast glancing back at him as if to say "yeah, she does that."

Watching intently, Zuko made no effort whatsoever to be quiet as he took the rice pot off of its stand and set it next to the fire to cook.

Katara remained as unaffected as ever.

Then, now more morbidly curious than afraid of waking her, Zuko lifted the lid of the pot and dropped it from a height of several inches, producing a ringing crash that echoed around the cavern.

Katara's snores cut off… and she resumed sleeping silently.

 _Huh,_ Zuko thought, _that's… odd._

He never met someone who slept that deeply. It would have been unthinkable that someone might remain asleep, and so soundly, in the Fire-Nation after the Sun had risen.

But Zuko loved odd, and he unconsciously fell into the habit he had picked up briefly in the woods outside of Gaoling.

He watched her sleep, a rather foolish smile on his face.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

 _Ok, this is getting a little ridiculous._

It was now past _noon._ Certainly, the rain outside would have made it hard for a non-firebender to tell, but the Sun had been up for _hours_.

And Katara had only started snoring again.

Zuko had eaten breakfast, kept and then discarded a portion of that breakfast (it having gone cold after a few hours), done his two-thousand cuts, re-read three chapters of _LEADERSHIP_ , brushed Appa, packed, and then unpacked all of their gear, mended a small rip in one of his shirts, and meditated on the nature of fire at least a dozen times.

The only time Katara had reacted was when he had drawn his katana for the first iteration of his thousand cuts. She had grimaced slightly at that, but remained otherwise entirely relaxed.

 _She's been asleep for at least eighteen hours! Who does that?_

For lack of anything better to do, Zuko had begun having a quiet, obviously one-sided conversation with her.

"I was pleased that you at least _reacted_ to the sound of a blade being drawn in your presence…"

Katara began snoring again.

"...but we are really going to have to do something about that, snuggle-bunny. It's dangerous for us… well… everywhere really. Really dangerous for all of us…"

Katara resumed sleeping silently.

"...but I won't let anything happen to you," Zuko growled, then rolled his eye. "I know that, if you were awake, you'd probably be rather… stubborn about that. You think that you don't need protecting because you are so strong…"

Katara gave a sleep snort as though in agreement.

"But not if you're going to sleep like _this_ ," Zuko said quietly but still fiercely. "I would have set Mai and Ty Lee to guard your tent in _shifts_ if I had known you were capable of sleeping through _most_ of a day. What would have happened if we had been attacked?"

Katara, of course, had no response except for deep quiet breathing.

"How are we going to do this, Katara?" Zuko asked, still quiet. "How am I going to be able to-" he shook his head. "I don't know how I can forgive myself, even if you do. I don't know that _I_ would forgive anyone who betrayed me."

He could practically hear her retort to this, however. She would turn it around on him, like always, like a true master waterbender.

" _Would you have forgiven ME? Had I nearly killed your sister and then left with Aang?"_

The idea was ludicrous of course but, lacking anything better to do, he considered it anyway, as a pure hypothetical.

Had Azula (who was Aang in this bizarre scenario) recovered, and had Katara shown up to help the Fire-Nation (disregarding the impossibility of that, and the fact that Zuko would not currently want _anyone_ to help the loyalist forces of the Fire-Nation) what would he have done?

Had Azula the befriended and forgiven her as Aang had done (another plausibly impossible idea, but acceptable as a hypothetical way of bringing their two situations into some semblance of similarity.) And then had she somehow managed to befriend Mai and Ty Lee as opposed to Sokka and Toph, as well as rescue his father…

 _No. Fuck that. He's not getting anywhere CLOSE to my Katara, not even in a hypothetical._

Had she rescued his _mother_ then, and then dedicated herself to his side of the conflict…

 _Well… yes. I suppose I would forgive her. But I still don't know how we would get back to where we once were. Ash, but that would probably…_

That would have driven him half-mad. Might have even driven him to make rather loud and poorly thought out speeches about how she never cared about him at all, just to see if she would contradict…

 _Oh._

He glanced up from his thoughts, and was startled to find Katara now sitting upright, her face almost entirely concealed by her long now very messy hair.

"Good aftern-" Zuko began, but was cut off as Katara… _growled_ at him.

"Is… there… tea?" she asked slowly, seeming to require all of her mental power to make coherent sounds. Her eyes, barely visible behind her thick brown mane, were still mostly closed.

"Uh… I can make some… if you would like?" Zuko said hesitantly.

This was met with a nod and another noise, a half-growl, half-pleased groan.

With the air of a naturalist watching a newly discovered and very obviously dangerous species of animal, Zuko made his way to their luggage and quickly found the small kettle and tea packets. He hadn't anticipated needing them, but as someone who had spent almost a decade in Iroh's company, packing tea was an ingrained habit.

After capturing some rainwater from outside of the cave, and applying his bending to the kettle, boiling it in the brief walk back to the still immobile Katara, he dropped a pre-measured packet of strong black tea into the kettle and let it steep for a moment.

He looked back up at Katara as he waited and found her in the same position as before, still looking as though she might have fallen back asleep sitting up.

"Katara? Are you alri-"

"No talk. Tea first," she growled.

This, as usual, probably had the opposite of its intended effect, as Zuko, now with an amused grin on his face, found it very attractive.

After another silent moment, Zuko poured the tea through its built-in wire mesh and into his Blind Bandit cup.

"It is hot," he warned, and he held the tea out to her.

Katara, seeming as though she was straining against the very weight of the sea itself, slowly took the cup from him. She blew on it through a gap in her hair and Zuko could see tiny ice crystals in the air above the cup, obviously cooling the tea down to a temperature that a non-firebending person might enjoy.

She took a sip, and her eyes sprang open as the tea made contact with her tongue. She winced and gave a little cough.

"No good?" Zuko asked, irritated with himself at how disappointed he sounded.

Katara glanced at him behind her hair, then looked back to the tea. With a grimace normally only worn by drinkers of the highly alcoholic Earth-Kingdom soju, she brought the cup back to her lips and downed the contents in a single gulp.

"Very… bracing," she said, then held out the cup for more.

"I've heard _that_ before," Zuko said, a small smirk on his face as he poured her another cup.

She eyed him as she sipped at the tea, her eyes gradually shifting from their dull unfocused haze to sharp and more attentive.

"I never imagined that you were a tea drinker," Zuko said, mostly to fill the silence. "I did not think they grew tea in the South."

"I _wasn't_. This is all Toph's fault," Katara said. "She's even _more_ impossible without a cup of tea in the morning and now…" Her eyes noted the Blind Bandit logo on the side of her teacup, and she cocked an eyebrow in a question.

Zuko just shrugged. "She _was_ the best one there."

Katara smiled briefly, but then slumped. "I've been so horrible to her. Really just horrible to everyone." She shook her head.

"I think it is fair to say that _that_ is my fault."

"No, it _isn't,"_ Katara retorted, her jaw clenched in irritation. "I chose to take my frustrations out on-"

"Somehow, I do not think Toph was blameless either," Zuko said mildly. "I do not doubt that she said a great many _rude_ things when she was out of my hearing."

"Oh yeah," Katara said. "She was just so… _rrgh_. And the worst part was that she was _right._ She said that I just needed to kick your ass and talk to you in a 'non-scold-y' way."

Zuko rolled his eye. "Yes, but _everything_ is so _very_ simple when you're a tiny earthbending teenager."

Katara snorted in amusement and then finished her cup. She set it down and suddenly looked slightly aghast.

"Uggh, my hair. I must look awful." She began to fish around in the small pouch that was attached to her belt.

Zuko cocked his head to the side in a combination of amusement and negation.

"I think you look beautiful."

Katara flushed as she pulled out a yellowed whale-bone comb and began to run it through her hair quickly, wincing as she ran into snarls.

"I wouldn't think… you would be… partial to… dirty… unkempt… barbarian women," she said in between strokes of her comb. She stopped for a moment and grinned. "Is there a _waterbending_ fetish in the Fire-Nation? Or are you _unique_ in that regard?"

Zuko grinned back, recalling saying something similar to her in the badlands. "We respect strength," he said. "I am _not_ unique in that regard."

"Is… was that all there was to it?" Katara said quietly. "Strength?"

"No, but there is nothing wrong with admiring you for your strength. Strength comes in many forms and is one of those simple words that can mean so many different things. That is what I learned on Taiyoshima."

 _Oh ash,_ Zuko realized, _I haven't told her about mother and Kiyi yet. Is… is this the right time for that?_

Despite his inner uncertainty Katara actually smiled at him quite happily.

"I don't know what happened on that island but I'm really glad you went. Aang was so nervous about firebending before, and now he talks about it like it's the best thing since sliced-jerky."

"You didn't seem too pleased at the time," Zuko said mildly.

"Well, I was angry at you." Her face fell slightly, "I think I'm _still_ angry actually."

Zuko cocked his head to the side in surprise.

"Zuko, it's going to be a long time before I can stop being angry about Ba Sing Se. But I can forgive you, and still be angry at the same time. Just because I understand why, doesn't mean I'm not angry."

Zuko blinked at that and then asked what he thought was the obvious question.

"And Yon-Rha? Are you still angry about that?"

Katara's face took on a sour note as she mused for the space of a pair of heartbeats.

"No. I suppose that, in the light of day, he _was_ a criminal, and you're a legal representative of Fire-Nation law. You didn't… do any of that _other_ stuff you said you wanted to do, so I guess I can't say that it was entirely personal."

"You granted him your mercy. Respecting that was the least I could do. But…" he fumbled with his thoughts for a moment, "...why? Why didn't you… If someone had done that to _my_ mother…"

"It… it wouldn't have accomplished anything," Katara said sadly. "It wouldn't bring my mother back, and it wouldn't have made her death any less horrible. All it would have done was push me one step closer towards being Hama."

"Katara, you are NOT that creature. Just because…"

"You trust my decisions?"

Zuko nodded.

"Then trust that I made the right decision there. The more I kill, kill in cold-blood, the easier it will become. And the easier it becomes, the easier it will be to begin justify using… _that._ "

Zuko thought it was a bit of a leap to go from justly executing a murderous fiend to wanton use of _Maho_ , but he said nothing. She obviously felt that way, and she had a right to decide what bends she wanted to use and when.

 _Besides, it's not as though she needs it to be amazing,_ Zuko thought remembering her rampage through the naval tower.

"What are you grinning at now?" Katara said as she pulled some of her hair back into the loose bun she preferred.

"I was remembering the naval tower. You were incredible," Zuko said grinning more widely. "Oh. Yes. I suppose we should high-five." He raised one hand.

Katara cocked an eyebrow in disdain. "Ah... no."

"No?" Zuko examined his hand as though he might find something offensive on it. "But it certainly was a victory. Sokka will most definitely want to high-five when we return."

"You're ridiculous."

"I believe that this is what is referred to as being left 'hanging,'" Zuko said with a frown. "I was given to understand that this was a grave dishonor among the Unicorn."

"Amongst the _men-folk,_ maybe. Spirits, I should have never left you two alone without adult supervision." She shook her head. "He's going to be insufferable after I tell him."

"Tell him?"

"About Ba Sing Se. He always pulls out his boomerang and tries to be 'menacing' at boys whenever the so much as _look_ at me in the wrong way and…"

"Uh… well…"

Katara's face fell into a scowl "...you already told him, didn't you?"

"We… may have had a few drinks on route to the Boiling Rock and-"

"He's known since the prison?!" Katara squeaked. "Oh no, no, no, this is BAD."

"He seemed… alright with it. In so much as he was willing to-"

"No! Not him! My DAD! Does my friggin _father_ know?"

"...As I am not dead, I would presume not."

Katara sagged in relief. "Well, that's good at least. My dad seems to be under the impression that I'm still _seven_ most of the time. He's not going to take this well. We don't…" she flushed again, "we don't generally do the things you and I did without being married first in the Unicorn."

"...at all?"

"No. Sex leads to babies, and we take that very very seriously. When resources are scarce you can't just have people running around and making more mouths to feed at the drop of a parka."

"Oh. I suppose that makes sense," Zuko said. "This is not how things are in the Fire-Nation of course, but I understand."

"And how are _things_ done in the Fire-Nation?" Katara asked with a cocked eyebrow.

"Uh… well… since we have… you know… _done_ it, I would imagine that you should already-"

"Not THAT, you complete dork! I meant… relationships."

"Oh… Well, I am not an expert of course, but generally two people meet and then after some conversation they might decide to… give it a go."

"Give it… a _go?_ " Katara sounded almost disgusted by the idea.

"Well… I don't know," Zuko said, reasonably sure that he was making a mess of explaining things. "They might go out to various events together, converse, and if they enjoyed one another's company then they might find a private place to… be… private in. Public displays of physical intimacy are considered rather crass, of course, but in private…" Zuko shrugged. Generally what people did in private was not for anyone to comment on, which was one of several reasons that he had never had a problem with Mai and Ty Lee's relationship.

"Oh," Katara said processing that information for a moment. "That seems… kinda stupid."

"…More or less stupid than not letting half of your people learn how to fight?" Zuko asked, somewhat defensively.

"That was the Crane!"

"Yes, the more _populous_ half of your people."

"My _point_ was that, if everything is so secret, then how would anyone know that two people are together?"

"Generally, it is not considered to be anyone else's business."

"But what if they have a _baby_? A baby is _everyone's_ business."

"True. In the Fire-Nation, the baby's fate is primarily the mother's decision. Marriage is preferable, but if it is not in the future for the parents, the child can become a member of the mother's family, or the father's, depending on the wishes of the mother and the consent of the family heads."

"Well… what if the father doesn't want the baby?"

"Doesn't want… I don't understand."

"Well, I mean if they weren't setting out to _make_ a baby, maybe the father doesn't want the kid. What then?"

" _Want_ is immaterial. The baby… _is_. If the mother decides that the baby would have a better life in the father's family, then her wishes are usually respected. Again, normally, the family heads would _encourage_ the two to get married, such accidents are considered the will of the heavens, guiding the two families towards alliance."

"Well… but, what if the father tries to say that the child isn't his?"

Zuko blinked. "You mean… _lie_ about it?"

"Or what if the woman lies about it?" Katara said with a shrug. "I mean if you guys are all discrete about it, how does anybody really know?"

"I… don't know," Zuko said, scratching at his beard in thought. "I would imagine that the shugenja would be summoned to importune the spirits as to the truth. Then, if one or the other persisted in lying then… well… they'd probably have a little war over it. Depending on the will of the family heads. Maybe just a duel?"

"They'd start a _war_ over a baby?"

"No. They would start a war over someone's dishonorable conduct; lying in the face of the spirits. I mean… it's a _child._ How dishonorable would you have to be to lie about the origin of your child." Zuko suddenly went pale and his eye shot to Katara's. "Katara? You're not… not…"

"What?! NO!" Katara seemed aghast at the suggestion.

"Oh. That's… well… it would be rather poorly timed, and we weren't… well I don't think either of us were thinking too clearly for the past few weeks in that regard."

"I guess," Katara said blushing in remembrance. "I just… I suppose I was curious about what would have happened, back in Ba Sing Se, if…"

"The decision would have been yours as to the child's destiny. I would have been honor bound to respect that. Although, all and sundry would have been _furious_ at me. I was still technically a prince, and the line of succession is very important to us. You will recall how upset I became after… well… after."

" _Yes_ ," Katara spat, suddenly furious. "I suppose that having some _half-breed_ royal bastard running around would bring shame and dishonor down on the whole Fire-Nation."

"...half ...breed?"

"Oh yes," Katara said bitterly, her arms wound tightly around her chest. "I'm sure that 'tainting' the line of Akodo with 'barbarian filth' would just be the _end_ of days!"

Zuko cocked his head to the side in confusion for only a brief moment before his eye widened in realization.

"... my sister?"

Katara said nothing, but her silent glare off to the side was affirmation enough.

Zuko stared at her for a long moment before scooting forwards and taking Katara's hands in his.

"My sister… is insane. Not only that, but she was deliberately trying to make you angry at me. I do not think she is the best person to be basing an opinion on."

"Well, then why _did_ you-"

"Bastard royals are different than other children. They can, and often are, used as tools, puppets, in civil wars. While the Fire-Lord is supposed to have absolute authority over their successor, once they are dead… things can get fractious. This is _regardless_ of the heritage of the other parent. I would never want that for… for any child of ours."

Katara went slightly scarlet at that, but nodded in acceptance.

"This… we're getting a bit off topic here," Katara said, squeezing Zuko's hands. "We… we haven't even figured out what _we're_ doing. It may be a bit too early to start talking about… babies."

"Then why did you ask?"

"I was just curious. I realized a little while ago just how different everyone's cultures were when… promise you won't be angry?" she said suddenly.

"Would you _also_ like me to promise to stop breathing?"

"Fine. Whatever. It's… well… Aang… he's…"

"In love with you. I know this," Zuko said, restraining a growl only with great effort.

"Yes. Well. I… for a little while I… well… I thought that… he… well, he's not thirteen anymore and… I… well… I wasn't going to find anybody else like… and I thought that… he and I… might… well, we might have… been… _something_ … after the war."

Zuko said nothing, but the formerly banked campfire behind him sparked back to life.

"I mean… it was… silly… and I never... but…"

"Not silly," Zuko said this time failing to restrain a growl. "He is… _nice._ And… the Avatar."

"I suppose. But then… well, it just came up in conversation… but… you know how the Air-Nomads did it?"

"Ah. Yes. The orgies."

"Yeah, they… the what?" Katara said, suddenly going wide-eyed.

"The orgies? How they all got together and just…" Zuko made a disgusted dismissive motion with his hand.

"They DID?"

"Err... yes? That is what Aang said. Well, he didn't _really_ know. He said he was never old enough to go to one, but apparently there were a bunch of oils that got used to-"

"OK!" Katara said, cutting him off and seeming utterly mortified. "Well, that's _not_ what I meant!"

Zuko nodded in acceptance and waited for her to continue on to what it _was_ that she meant.

"They just… they didn't raise their children."

"How do you mean?"

"The Air-Nomads… well, the babies were raised communally by the female half of the temples until they were on solids, then sent off to the other temples, never to be seen again. Aang seemed to think that that was… that _I_ wouldn't have a problem with doing something similar."

Zuko just frowned at that.

"I think that, had I tried to, I could have eventually convinced him that I wasn't going to do that, but… just the idea that he would be… _ok_ with that. That he thought that _I_ would be ok with that…" she shook her head. "I wasn't. I guess I just wanted to know how it is in the Fire-Nation."

"Well, sometimes we do fosterage… but nothing like that."

"Fosterage?"

"Yes. Sometimes one family will send one of their children to live with another family for a few years. Never in infancy though. They go to cement alliances and to learn techniques and skills that they would not have learned otherwise. My sister was fostered for a few years with the Soshi family. That's how she met Mai actually."

"Not sure if _that's_ the best endorsement," Katara said wryly.

"It would be… as though you were sent to the Crane for a few years to learn Northern Style."

"Oh! Well… that doesn't sound too bad. Not babies though?"

"Certainly not. That sounds completely-"

"Like a _different culture_ that we are going to be _respectful_ of," Katara said quickly.

"Oh. Yes. Sure."

"Even if we wouldn't do something like that."

"Correct."

Katara grinned at him and Zuko found himself grinning back in the moment before her face reddened.

"Oh Moon, why are we still talking about babies!?"

"Something rude that Azula said, I believe."

"We should really just figure out what it is that _we're_ going to do."

"Do? Do about what?"

"About us."

There was a long pause as the weight of those two words settled on the both of them.

"Well…" Zuko began, "...what do _you_ want to-"

"Oh no!" Katara said, firing up immediately. "This is _not_ one of those times when you get to just say, 'whatever _you_ would like.' We're not picking out dinner recipes for the next week!"

"Uh… well… I love you."

"...and?"

"Well… I'm willing to accept whatever you feel-"

"No. I can't be the only one making these decisions. You have to tell me what it is you want."

"You. I just want you," Zuko said simply, squeezing her hand for emphasis.

She smiled at that but shook her head. "It's not that simple, Zuko."

"...How?"

"Well… I mean, there's the fact that we're from different nations, and we bend different elements, and you're going to be a _King_ -"

"Fire-Lord. We do not do _Kings_ in the Fire-Nation."

"Fine. But, you're going to be the leader of your people. So, anyone you mar- the one you end up with is going to be…" she looked at him in question.

"There are a variety of potential titles for the spouse of the Fire-Lord."

"Fine. Still, whoever the person that you… marry is, it's going to have huge friggin political ramifications and whatever."

"...Yes?"

"Zuko, I'm a barbarian waterbender from the bottom of the world! You can't just- Your country will- Our _children_ would be-"

"You, Shinjo Katara, are a princess of the line of Shinjo," Zuko snapped the fire behind him rising slightly in response to his ire.

"I'm not… not a _princess,_ Zuko."

"Your father is the Lord of your family, my ally, an excellent and accomplished warrior, and the leader of your people. Even the most conservative members of the aristocracy would have to acknowledge that you qualify as nobility. And _that_ presumes that I actually gave a _damn_ what they thought."

"But I'm a waterbender! Your people hate all the other-"

"While I have _noted_ a recent trend of arrogance in some of the aristocracy, you will hopefully notice that I am about to fight a _war_ ," Zuko said, his mind growing furious once again at the necessity of it. "A war against the people who believe that the Colonies are _not really_ Fire-Nation because of their mixed heritage." His face twisted into a brutal scowl as the fire behind him began to pulse like a drum. "So, after I _kill_ them all, I do not think there will be too much of a _problem."_

"Zuko, you can't just kill everyone who disagrees with-"

"Shinjo Katara!" Zuko thundered, his voice echoing throughout the cave as he found himself suddenly caught up in the _SONG_. "I will be _Fire-Lord_ ; and if anyone _dares_ to tell me that I cannot have you I will DESTROY them. I will ravage, kill, and BURN my way through anyone who would DARE to presume to dictate who I should love, any who would DARE to claim that our children are somehow _less_ because their mother is not Fire! You will _not_ suffer such disrespect, not while I draw breath!"

Katara's eyes grew wide and she glanced over his shoulder, noting that the campfire was now brushing the ceiling.

"Zuko? Where are you?" Katara asked slowly.

"W- what?"

"Where _are_ you?" Her voice was low, a counter-point to the song, a tenuous thread back to…

"I… I am here…" Zuko said. "Here… with…"

"With me. There is no one here but us."

And the _SONG_ subsided, the drums and chants fading away, never completely vanishing, but dropping out of the front of his mind.

"Ash…" Zuko whispered. "Was… was I…"

"No. That… that wasn't like before. Your eyes were different." Her hand came up to rest on his scarred face, the thumb making soothing motions he could barely feel on his cheek. "You're ok?"

"Yes. I am ok," Zuko said quietly. "I think I have gained the upper hand on that… thing… that lives in me. If nothing else my time on Taiyohsima taught me that." He frowned again. "Damn. I should have told Kiyi about it. It would be better if she was prepared for-"

"Who?"

 _Uh oh._

"Who is _Kiyi,_ Zuko?" Katara asked. She seemed calm on the surface, but the soothing hand on his face was now more of a restraining hand, and behind her eyes, anger seemed to be coiled and ready to spring.

 _Ash. This is exactly what happened LAST time._

"My sister," Zuko said. He supposed that there was no point in beating around the bush anymore. It would be better if Katara knew what to do, and who to go find to take up the cause should he fall in battle.

"What, is that Azula's nickname?"

Zuko exhaled a deep breath. "No. I… I have another sister and…"

Zuko was certain that this was not going to end well. He was going to have to tell Katara about his mother and she would probably think he had lied to her and, still grieving her own mother's death, she would probably explode. She was most likely going to become angry, or sad or some other combination of emotions that would remind him, and possibly her, that he really wasn't good enough for her.

"…my mother…" Zuko managed, words becoming harder in the face of Katara's quizzical look. "…my mother… is alive."

There was a beat of tense silence and Zuko, wincing internally, forced his eye back to Katara expecting, at the very least, a scowl and a barely repressed look of anger.

He was not expecting her to be weeping, her hands covering her mouth.

"Oh… oh, spirits. Zuko…"

"Why are you cry- UGG." He grunted as Katara flung herself bodily at him and wrapped her arms around his middle.

 _Damnit. Why am I always making her cry?_

"Look, Katara, I'm really-"

"Oh, this is wonderful," she said beaming up at him.

"…what?"

"Really? Your mom is ok?"

"Yes… why are you… aren't you angry?"

"Angry?" Katara leaned back from him. "Why would I be angry about something so wonderful?"

"Well… I… our mothers both being dead… we…" he trailed off as Katara shook her head in mild exasperation.

"…I _love you,_ grumpy-bear."

Zuko sagged slightly in relief.

"If I could have just one more _second_ with my mother, it would be the best most miraculous thing in the world," Katara said wiping the tears from her eyes. "That anyone could have that is wonderful, you most of all. I used to cry myself to sleep some nights after you told me about your mother."

"You did? Ash and bone, I should have never opened my mou-"

"Oh no you don't!" Katara snapped, now the angry and irritated that Zuko had previously expected. "Don't you freezing _dare._ You are going to _talk_ to me, Akodo Zuko. You do _not_ get to use me crying as an excuse for bottling everything up. If I want to be upset about something, that's _my_ decision."

"But-"

"But _nothing._ "

"…I _hate_ it," Zuko said quietly, his eye downcast. "I hate making you cry. Sometimes it's all I seem to be good at."

Katara examined him for a long moment before she leaned up and gave him a small kiss.

"I don't like it either, but I cry because I care. You said you… you love me, because I care?"

Zuko nodded.

"Then you're just going to have to get used to it. Just like I'm going to have to get used to… well," she smiled wryly and gestured at him, "this whole mess."

"What the Ash is _that_ supposed to mean?"

"Oh, you know, the usual. My boyfriend is an over-protective monarchist with a temper, who doesn't even know how to make _rice_ properly."

"I will have you know that I actually rin- … Boyfriend?"

"Yes," Katara said with a nod. "I would like to be your girlfriend. Please."

Zuko blinked at her, then smirked.

"I will _consider_ it."

"You'll what?! Akodo Zuko, if you think I am just going to-"

Zuko dipped down and headed off her rant with a rather serious kiss.

"Ok," he said softly after they separated.

Katara smiled happily and kissed him back.

After a long time of that Katara broke away from him and leaned back, her hand on his chest, holding him at bay, as she caught her breath.

"It's going to be _different_ this time, ok? We are going to take it _slow_. We are going to be honest and communicative with one another. We're going to have a dignified and mature relationship based on mutual trust and understanding. Not one based on… on _sex_ , alright?"

Zuko nodded and smiled.

" _And_ you're going to be the one to tell my dad."

Zuko froze. "W-what?"

"Yes. I've decided that that's your penance for Ba Sing Se," Katara said calmly as she extricated herself from Zuko and got to her feet. "You get to be the one to explain things to my dad."

"That… that is NOT a good idea," Zuko said gazing up at her in astonishment. "He will very likely try to-"

"I have every confidence in you."

"But-"

"The rain is going to stop in a few hours," Katara said, her eyes on the roof of the cave, apparently looking at something only a waterbender could see. "We should pack up and be ready."

"Yes. Alright. But… Katara, I really do think that you should be the one to-"

"You said you'd do anything I asked?" she said as she glanced back down at him. "So, I'm asking."

 _Yep. That was me. Idiot._

"I'm…" she looked worried for a moment, "…I'm already going to have to have one really awful awkward conversation. I have to apologize to Aang, and it would be really helpful if you'd be the one to talk to my dad."

Zuko's mouth firmed into a thin line as he nodded in acceptance.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

 _Lord Shinjo, I have been in love with your honored daughter since…_

No. That was no good. That would beg the question of exactly _when_. Which would lead to a discussion of why it had not been mentioned until now.

Zuko might as well just throw himself off of Appa now and save Hakoda the trouble.

 _Lord Shinjo, as you have honored me with this alliance, I would like to honor your daughter with…_

No. That sounded… transactional. This wasn't some arranged marriage for political expediency. He _loved_ her. Also, there was the fact that they were "taking things slow" which Katara had later informed him meant that there would be no discussion of anything beyond simple boyfriend-girlfriend dynamics until some time had passed. Zuko had yet to tell her that he had accidentally proposed, and that she had accidentally accepted, over a year ago.

Mentioning the fact that he was still carrying around his accidental betrothal neckless in a secret pocket of his uniform was probably the very _opposite_ of slow.

 _Lord Shinjo, I swear before you, here and now, that I will protect your daughter with my very life. Her enemies are mine, and I will BURN anyone who dares…_

No. That one sounded… a little crazy. Even Zuko, when divorced from any real anger, could tell that much. Besides, while Hakoda might respect his protective impulses, Katara most certainly would not. She would become rather angry and rant at him about sexism and being possessive and other various things that she had rather strong feelings on.

Nevermind that she was nearly as possessive as he was.

He was _hers_ … just as much as she was _his_.

"We're here," Katara called out from her seat at Appa's head, and the bottom dropped out of Zuko's stomach both literally and figuratively as the sky-bison descended.

 _Oh crap._

"Maybe… you should circle the area once," Zuko said after crawling up next to her. "For… reconnaissance purposes?"

"Don't be ridiculous. You'll be fine. Just be straightforward and speak from the heart." She pecked him on the cheek. "You're good at that."

"I am more worried about getting a piece of sharpened bone _through_ my heart," Zuko said in spite of the warmth that was growing in his chest.

"Now you're _really_ being silly. Nobody in my tribe would use a bone weapon on an enemy's ribcage. You need iron or, at the very least, a sharp rock."

"…You are enjoying this, aren't you?"

Katara only gave him that beautiful dangerous smile he loved, and Zuko could only grin back as Appa touched down at the edge of the war camp.

As they dismounted and began to unpack their gear, a veritable throng of people assembled in a rough arc around the bison, looking intermittently calm and impatient. Aang, in particular, looked enormously distraught, his grey eyes darting from Appa to Zuko to Katara to the sky and back again.

Finally, it seemed he could wait no longer, and he stepped forward with the look of a man about to pull a rotten, but still firmly attached tooth, the very instant all of the luggage had been removed from Appa's saddle.

"I… Katara… you- you didn't?" He couldn't seem to make himself ask the question.

Katara sagged where she stood, her back to Aang. She had obviously been dreading this conversation as much as Zuko was dreading "explaining" things to Hakoda. She glanced at Zuko, and he raised his lone eyebrow in a silent question.

" _I can tell him if you want."_

Somehow Zuko was certain he would have an easier time explaining the necessity of violence to Aang, then he would in attempting to make sure Lord Shinjo didn't try to murder him.

But Katara shook her head in negation and huffed out a breath as she turned to face Aang. "No, Aang. I didn't kill him."

Aang sagged in relief. "Oh, thank goodness."

Sokka looked over Aang at Zuko, his face conveying surprise and a dash of disappointment. Zuko gave him a small but communicative nod and Sokka's eyes widened and began flicking back and forth between him and the back of Aang's head.

Ignorant of that, Aang continued beaming at Katara. "You did the right thing, Katara. Forgiveness is the first step you have to take to begin healing."

"No. I didn't _forgive_ him, Aang. I could have _never_ forgiven him. I just… I didn't want his blood on my hands. He wasn't worth it."

Aang's smile dipped for a brief moment, but then returned. "I guess… that's ok. I mean as long as you didn't… you know… then he at least has a chance to redeem himself."

"No. He does not," Zuko said.

Aang's smile vanished as his eyes flitted to Zuko's. "What do you mean?"

Zuko opened his mouth to tell Aang _exactly_ what he meant, but Katara cut him off, simultaneously stepping in between them.

"He _means_ that that man was a criminal, Aang. He committed a crime, several crimes, he confessed to them, and was punished accordingly."

"But-"

"No buts, Aang."

"That's not right!" Aang's eyes had gone hard. "You can't just… you aren't allowed to-"

"Don't you _dare_ -" Zuko began.

"Zuko?" Katara said, cutting him off without even turning around with the ferocity of her tone, "I am _handling_ this, ok?"

Zuko's mouth snapped shut.

"Aang?" Katara said moderating her tone, "we've been over this. You can't apply Air-Nomad morality to everyone."

"This isn't a person eating _meat!_ " Aang shouted. "This is _murder!"_

"Not in the Fire-Nation it isn't."

"That isn't acceptable! What about the sanctity of life? What about-"

"Aang, it's done," Katara said firmly. "I'm sorry that you don't like it, but it's done… and I'm not sorry."

"Katara?"

"I'm not sorry he's dead," Katara said with quiet ferocity. "I'm only sorry that a creature like that could never understand the magnitude of the crime he committed. Never understand that he robbed the world of the most wonderful mother I could ever ask for. He could never… never…" her voice grew thick with emotion until she couldn't go any further and she broke down in a grief-laden sob, then spun around and buried her face in Zuko's chest.

Zuko's arms came up reflexively and wrapped around her, causing the jaws of most of the onlookers to drop groundward. Zuko gave her a comforting squeeze, then silently rolled his eye as he caught a glimpse of Toph doing some sort of celebratory dance and Ty Lee grinning and shaking a flat faced Mai back and forth in excitement.

Katara collected herself quickly and stepped away from Zuko with a huff.

"I've really got to stop this, I'll ruin your shirt."

"I have others," Zuko said quietly. "You are alright?"

She nodded, wiping at her eyes one last time before she turned around to face a still shocked looking Aang.

"But… I _am_ sorry I yelled at you, Aang. I said a lot of things that… I was just… I was angry. But not at _you_. I'm sorry, Aang."

"I… It's ok." Aang sighed, a big deep gust that rustled at the grass all around them. "I forgive you." He smiled again, but now with a hint of sadness. "Is it ok if we take a break and I take Appa for a little ride?"

Zuko blinked as he realized that Aang was talking to him. "I… of course. We will resume training tomorrow." Aang grinned, a smile that now contained its usual joy, and with a burst of airbending he propelled himself onto Appa's forehead in a happy hug.

As Aang ascended upward the group that had gathered descended on Zuko and Katara. There were hugs and a few more tears for Katara, and salutes, bows, and a single high-five for Zuko. Gradually the crowd thinned out a great deal as Zuko gave instructions and warnings with regards to the rapidly approaching monsoon season.

"Is your father here?" Zuko asked Sokka after he had requested and received his high-five. "There is a matter," he glanced at Katara, now in an animated conversation with Suki, "that I have agreed to discuss with him."

"Wow, she's really making you work for it, huh?" Sokka said, grinning toothily at him. "Well, sorry to _disappoint,_ but he's still up north. It sounds like negotiations aren't going… _well._ "

 _Not sure I should be feeling relieved by that,_ Zuko thought.

"Hey!" Toph shouted suddenly, stomping her foot, making the ground shake, and drawing all attention to her.

"Yes, Toph?" Katara said with an exasperated-sounding sigh.

Toph only stood there, her hands on her hips, her head down and tilting from side to side, her foot tapping in irritation making the ground rumble slightly.

"No. We did not bring you any souvenirs," Zuko said.

"… you two morons gonna get it on or what?" Toph said after another long moment.

"Toph!" Katara squeaked, flushing.

"What?" Toph barked. "I didn't spend five fucking months pestering you two dorks just for a fucking cry-hug! That's some serious pre-school kiddie-matinee badgershit right there."

"Toph, that is _wildly_ inappropriate," Zuko muttered.

"Wildly inappropriate, my dirt-covered ass! Kiss her you goon!"

"That is _not_ how this works, you tiny savage!" Zuko snapped. "I'm _Fire-Nation_ , and we at least have some sense of propriet-"

He never finished his sentence however as Katara took a long step forward and, grabbing him by the face, began kissing him rather vigorously.

Toph resumed her victory dance, pumping her fist in the air, while Sokka fake gagged in mock disgust. Haki scowled and handed a grinning Bo a money pouch with ten koku in it while Ty Lee exploded in giggles at Mai's side.

Zuko _was_ Fire-Nation, and he _did_ have a sense of propriety, but it was fair to say that, at that moment, with his arms around Katara and her arms around him, and the rest of the world somewhere else…

… _Fuck propriety,_ Zuko thought, and he continued to kiss her like his life depended on it.

* * *

 **A/N: Hello hello and welcome back my friends! Did you miss me? I missed me. But regardless of missing or not missing, here she is! My baby. So-called because she is, by FAR the youngest chapter I have ever published, having only passed completely through 2nd drafting some 3 days ago.  
**

 **.**

 **So be gentle (or not) and let me know what you think! Comment! Review! Hire a Sky-Writer!**

 **.**

 **Baby META-BITS**

 **.**

 **Choices: One of the things that is HUGELY important to me in any narrative is agency. A character needs to be allowed to make their own decisions, and needs to have the wherewithal (or possibly just the moxie) to **_**make**_ **those decisions. If the character's choices are stripped from them by the author then that is what's called railroading. If the choices are taken by another character it** _ **better**_ **be because that character is the antagonist, and while Zuko** _ **was**_ **Katara's antagonist for a long while, he's not about that life anymore. As you may be able to tell I struggled greatly with the Yon-Rha decision myself. I wanted to keep Katara true to her character, the character that both canon and I have established. I don't feel like she's the kind of person who would strike someone down in cold blood, I just couldn't see that. I also couldn't see Zuko,** _ **Akodo**_ **Zuko anyway, walking away from him, and leaving him alive. My thought eventually became that if** _ **I**_ **was having this dilemma, there is no way in hell that** _ **Katara**_ **was not having a similar conflict. She is very much a "you can't tell me what to do/knock me down" kind of person and so the two of them were going to need to have a** _ **conversation**_ **. But until about 10 days ago the conversation was happening mostly off camera, and in little touch and go moments throughout the rest of the piece.**

 **I realized that that wasn't working, hence you get this baby, this walloping enormous baby, and a bunch of real talk.**

 **I hope you enjoyed it!**

 **.**

 **Hama: In case it wasn't clear things were a **_**bit**_ **more fucked up in my mental version of "the puppetmaster." One of the main reasons was the idea, again, of the FN taking prisoners.**

 **What the hell was the point of that?**

 **I get that it was a kids show, but why would the FN take people prisoner? Incarceration is** _ **expensive**_ **, so if you are the nation of bad guys why bother? Just give them the honor of dying at your hand and then take all the money you save and buy yourself something pretty.**

 **With SPIKES.**

 **So Hama was** _ **not**_ **taken prisoner, she was instead a survivor of that big ass battle, the one where Katara and Sokka's gramp-gramp died, Iroh became the dragon of the west, and the SWT and FN signed an armistice.**

 **But she went a** _ **teensy**_ **bit crazy in the aftermath, war is hell and all that. She became a refugee, blended into a nearby island, and then became, essentially, a serial killer.**

 **You know, as ya do.**

 **But she** _ **was**_ **a gifted waterbender, and I do not doubt that, over time, and desirous of new ways to** _ **hurt**_ **people, she "learned" bloodbending/maho. I say "learned" because, in a world with** _ **spirits**_ **, it is unlikely that her early activities didn't attract the attention of the darker powers. I like to think that she had some minor version of what was going on with the Akodos. Dark spirit teaching dark powers, in dreams or in waking, I'm not firm on that but I think it's a possibility. YMMV.  
**

 **.**

 **Light Sleepers V Late Sleepers: The 2** **nd** **scene was entirely born of the fact that I am an** _ **incredibly**_ **light sleeper. If somebody is moving anywhere in my house, I am going to at least open my eyes a bit. I am also a bit of an earlier riser, much like I assume most everyone in the FN is, firebending culture and all.**

 **But I have a tendency, somehow, to date really** _ **really**_ **deep sleepers.**

 **But as a light sleeper, I am super paranoid about waking other people up. Once** _ **I**_ **am up, really up, I'm not going back to sleep regardless of whether it is 4am or 9am.**

 **So you get a bit of comedy (to me anyways) as Zuko does that first time waking up next to a sleeping girl thing and doesn't want to wake her.**

 _ **I**_ **at least am amused.**

 **.**

 **FN babies and privacy: RW Japan and L5R are both very much NOT Judeo-Christian in their ideas of sex. This is not a free-love kind of situation, they just don't, in my understanding at least, have the same intrinsic social hang-ups we have in the west. What both cultures, both real and fictional, do have is a deeply ingrained desire to respect privacy. When personal appearances are everything, as they are in samurai culture, and people live in SUPER close proximity with only paper screens for walls (as was done in Japan) it becomes second nature to "ignore" things that aren't happening right in front of you. You don't pry, and in response, your neighbor doesn't pry, and everyone gets to take a break from the high-tension public appearances thing.**

 **But, as Katara points out, a baby is everyone's business. You can't ignore that.**

 **So if the two crazy kids weren't going to get married the baby would just be accepted into one or the other's family as though it just** _ **happened**_ **to show up.**

" **Where'd that infant come from?" "Oh, you know, just turned up last Thursday."**

 **That way nobody gets shamed and nobody gets seppukued.**

 **.**

 **Berserker mode explained: I feel like it requires a bit more explanation, where I'm coming from here. The issue being that I can't just have the characters **_**talk**_ **about it because none of** _ **them**_ **know where I'm going with it either.**

 **Basically, the Akodos have always had a deeper personal connection with their ancestors. Not the collected "knowledge and wisdom" thing Aang has got going on, more their instincts and a sort of internal chorus that advocates honor, the protection of family, and righteous indignation in the face of bullshit. They have a history of this that predates Sozin by several** _ **thousand**_ **years.**

 **So when the forces of evil made their move they did it in a way that would** _ **look**_ **similar. The FN** _ **has**_ **shugenja, and it's not like possession is something unheard of and being as privacy is such a big deal (see the above) it's not like anyone is sitting down and comparing notes.**

 **But Zuko can tell the difference now, and so can Katara.**

 **So that's nice then.**

 **.**

 **The shovel talk: No guy likes this. No matter how nice your SO's father seems, there is a lot of unconscious masculine bullshit that goes on in the meeting the father. Protective impulses, some **_**possessive**_ **impulses and about 40,000 years of testosterone poisoning does that. So Zuko isn't looking forward to it… but YOU should. I think you'll enjoy it.**

 **.**

 **The State of the Fic: So, obviously this chapter did NOT appear at your regularly scheduled time and I really do apologize for that, however, that's going to be the new normal I'm afraid. I have looked over the drafts of the rest of the chapters and found them in **_**serious**_ **need of revising. That's my big problem with dialog chapters like this one, they just… GALIVANT along through my previous work, taking bits from here and there and invalidating other portions. Not too terribly, but honestly, I** _ **need**_ **the time to make sure the THRILLING CONCLUSION is up to snuff.**

 **I hope you'll stick with me… right until the very** _ **end**_ **(/return of the ominous bassoon of foreshadowing)**

 **.**

 **That's it! I hope you enjoyed/will continue to enjoy the work. If you commented and I have somehow missed personally responding to you know it is MY fault, and not yours. You are awesome and are the recipient of many digital high-fives!**

 **Have a good one!**

 **.**

 **NEXT TIME on a very special "Avatar: The Last Dragon"...**

 **Zuko does NOT go on holiday.**

 **TUNE IN. New Zuko time, Same Zuko channel!**

 **Original post date: 10 February 2019**


	15. The Nights of Ember Island

**A/N:** **The following is rated V; for Vignettes**

 **It corresponds, chronologically, with the beginning of S3E17 "The Ember Island Players."**

 **Reader discretion is advised.**

* * *

Chapter 15 "The Nights of Ember Island."

* * *

 **Summer, Year 12 in the reign of Fire-Lord Ozai**

 _She's going to be insufferable about this,_ Zuko thought to himself, grimacing at the throbbing pain in his arm.

The _she_ in this instance was Mai, and the reasons for her upcoming insufferableness were two-fold.

Firstly she had, once again, been proven absolutely right. She had _not_ gotten all the spies that his father had planted in Zuko's forces. She _had_ needed more time, and Zuko and Sokka's poorly timed Boiling Rock excursion had forced her hand too soon.

Secondly, she had recently begun making a great deal of noise, in the somewhat sharp if mostly uninflected monotone that she used for things that she _really_ cared about, about Zuko needing to show more care in his personal security. That he could not go stalking around through the camp all alone, and without more personal security than his own vision and skill

Zuko had rejected all of these ideas out of hand. He refused to act like he was worried, afraid, in front of his soldiers. That would be showing weakness which he was sure would be detrimental to morale.

Zuko was sure that Mai, a subdued but no less triumphant smirk on her face, would be _certain_ to point out that his being carted through the camp, fuming and swearing over the assassin's arrow that had gone clear through his forearm, would be just as bad, if not worse, for morale.

He was certain that she would pounce on him as soon as the staff meeting was over, but in the meantime Zuko simply listened as his officers argued and shouted at one another over what to do; incited to the closest thing to panic that a Fire-Nation soldier would show after this, the _seventh_ assassination attempt, in three days.

"How is he supposed to train the Avatar when people are trying to kill them every other hour?" Haki shouted. He had taken charge of security for the camp and was taking this most recent "failure" rather personally. He'd already offered seppuku twice already, and Zuko had declined the offer each time. He'd told Haki that he would have failed only if Zuko had _died_ and, if he ever _did_ fail in that regard, _then_ he could feel free to do as he pleased.

"I want every damned messenger hawk under lock and key! If there is so much as an unauthorized _sparrowkeet_ in camp, I want to flaming know about it," Haki bellowed.

 _At least this one wasn't another one of the Yiga clansmen,_ Zuko mused. The giant silent man, with his people's unique facial tattoo, and _explosion_ bending, had been the first to assault the war camp. Zuko, and pretty much everyone along with him, was now eternally grateful that he'd taken the time to replace Sokka's boomerang.

Sokka himself had somehow become even _more_ attached to the weapon, something Zuko would have previously deemed impossible.

The general officers and retainers snapped and cursed and threw objections and suggestions at one another in typical Fire-Nation fashion. They would settle into something like order if Zuko intervened but, until then, they would squabble and fight amongst themselves, either persuading or being persuaded.

Zuko was content to simply listen for the moment however. He sat on a camp stool at the head of the rickety folding table, shirtless, his injured arm held out to the side as Katara worked at it. She muttered and fumed as she did so, flossing a stream of water through the puncture, then sealing the skin on either side. After she had finished, she rinsed her hands in clean water and turned to address the officers.

"We're going to have to leave," she said.

The tent fell silent, all eyes on her.

"Leave… err… Ma'am?" Haki asked, fumbling briefly for an appropriate title.

"Yes. As you said, Zuko can't train Aang if they're both being attacked every other hour. You can't guarantee that there won't be more spies slipping in with the rest of the army, so we'll have to go someplace safe that nobody knows about. Aang has to be ready to face the Fire-Lord."

 _Oh damnit. Ash and bone, Katara,_ Zuko thought, surprise and mild irritation concealed behind his normal scowl.

"With respect, Ma'am," one of the younger officers said, "Why does Lord Togashi have to face the Fire-Lord? Surely His Highness should be the one to-"

"We have been over this," Mai said from the corner of the tent, not looking up from sharpening one of her shuriken. "We need the help of the foreign powers to pull this off, and they are only going to help us because of the Avatar. As long as the _Avatar_ strikes the Fire-Lord down, the Fire-Nation can be assured to have a debt of honor to him. If His Highness kills his father, then the entire matter will just be dismissed as another internal power struggle, and whatever remains of the Earth-King's armies will come crashing down on us at our weakest."

"I still don't see why we need their _help_ -" "You should be grateful that they're willing to-" "His Highness shouldn't have to-"

They were off again, debating and arguing, sharpening their points on the grindstone of conflict.

But this time Zuko had no interest in the debate. He had already made up his mind after all.

"ENOUGH!" he barked, slamming his hand down on the table, stifling the argument _and_ a wince as he did so, remembering belatedly that, healed or not, he had just taken an _arrow_ through that arm. "We ARE accepting allies. The Avatar IS facing the Fire-Lord. And I," he shook his head, steeling himself for the coming storm, "if I leave the army, people will _talk._ They will say that I have run away." He turned to Katara. "I risk losing the whole of the army if that happens."

"The soldiers _believe_ in you, Zuko," Katara said, putting her hands on her hips. "They're not going to desert you if you go off to fulfill your 'sworn obligations.'"

"I cannot lead an army in _hiding,_ Katara.I will be unable to react quickly enough if I am not here."

"React to _what?_ It's the monsoon season," Katara snapped, gesturing out the tent flap to the steady, but currently only misting, rain that was making it near to impossible to march or to even move the camp, another reason that assassins kept finding them easily. "Your father can't make the crossing to the Earth-Continent and nobody is fighting in all of this. You have nothing to do until-"

"I am not going anywhere, Katara," Zuko said, rising to his feet and grabbing up his shirt, "and that is final."

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Katara had, of course, followed him back to his tent, silently fuming in his wake.

Silence which only lasted until they both entered his tent.

"I can't believe you! Staying here is just really-" she cut off as Zuko lightly put his fingers over her mouth, and then peaked past her and out the tent. It appeared that no one else had followed.

"Pack light," Zuko said quietly. "Clothes to blend-in in any nation. Tell your brother and Toph the same, but do NOT let them make a fuss."

"We _are_ going?" she whispered, after he removed his hand.

He nodded. "Yes. You were quite right. I stay here, immobile, for any longer and one of us is going to get killed. Jee and Mai will sort the whole thing out and we will come back after the rains have stopped."

"Then why did you…"

"It is very likely that one of the people in that tent is reporting to my father," Zuko growled. His eye darted back to Katara and he smiled hopefully. "Do you think they bought it? I am not really good at that sort of thing."

She popped up on her toes and gave him a quick peck on the mouth. "Yes, I'm sure they did." Zuko's grinned widened as she sank back on to her heels. "Where are we going?

"I'm not sure yet. We'll figure it out tonight when we're on Appa and away from here."

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"I have changed my mind, this is a terrible idea," Zuko said to no one in particular as Appa soared upward through the nighttime gloom, trying to gain enough height to put them above the rain clouds.

"Well, it wouldn't be a Zuko idea if it wasn't a terrible idea," Mai said with audible acid from beneath a rain shawl. "Like trying to leave me behind… _again._ " She narrowed her eyes at Katara.

Appa's saddle was far more crowded than it had been in any time in Zuko's experience. Zuko sat at the very back, cross-legged as before, but now the edges of the saddle were filled with Mai, Ty Lee, Toph, Suki, Katara, and Sokka. Aang sat in his usual place on Appa's head, happy to be flying, even in the rain. Katara sat at his right, bending the rain away from herself and the sleeping form of the Duke, curled up on her lap, as well as glaring back at Mai.

"Nobody asked you to come along _last_ time either," Katara said as the two of them glared daggers at one another.

"I thought the Fire-Nation liked to at least _pretend_ that they had manners?" Suki said eyeing Mai and Ty Lee. "Don't you know it's rude to butt into somebody else's vacation?"

"This is not a-" Zuko began.

"Ooooh, this is a _vacation?_ " Ty Lee chirped, clapping her hands in excitement from under Mai's rain cover. "Can we go someplace sunny? I packed a swimsuit!"

"I say we drop little miss flips-a-lot off in the Burning Sands,"Toph said grimacing in sullenness. "Her voice makes me want to break something."

"See, _this_ is what I was talking about," Sokka said from Zuko's left, whispering loudly behind his hand, "too much 'lady' energy." Four sets of eyes swung on him and he wilted slightly. The fifth set, belonging to Toph, also glared but more just in his general direction.

"This was a _terrible_ idea," Zuko repeated, scowling.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"This was an AWESOME idea!" Aang cried happily. He had stripped down to his loincloth in an instant and was already sprinting towards the black sandy beach that was the front yard of the Winter Palace, on the perpetually sunny Ember Island.

"Aang! Be careful!" Katara called after him. "No bending!" She shook her head in mild exasperation as the Duke, more slowly, but no less excitedly, ran past her, also only in his loincloth. Then she turned and made her way past a still arguing Zuko and Mai, gathering the pair's discarded clothes as she went.

"Mai, I know the Ty wanted to go someplace with _Sun_ , but this is asinine!"

"We are not here because of what Ty wants," Mai snapped. "We are here because it is the _last_ place anyone would think to look for you. It also has one of the best civilian hawkeries in the Nation, a tradition of not examining people's identities too closely, and it is relatively close to the colonies and shipping lanes. This is _ideal._ "

"Damnit, we were practically _just_ here. We burned down a man's house, announced our engagement, people are going to _remember_ that."

"It was almost seven months ago and if they remember anything, they will remember _you_. Which is why you _aren't_ going into town. You are staying here," she smirked, "where your stupidity can't get you killed."

"But-"

"Besides, it's the offseason. And even if it wasn't, nobody would _dare_ to come here."

"I still don't think that-"

The argument continued for quite a few minutes more, Zuko tossing out objections and Mai shooting each of them down with counter-arguments as easily as she would have with knives.

"Just give it up, Zuko," Ty Lee said, making her way down to the beach, having immediately changed into her swimsuit. "You never win arguments with Mai."

"I _sometimes_ win arguments with Mai," Zuko retorted at her back, just on the near side of petulantly.

"Zuko? Do you know which of these rooms was your dad's?" Katara asked, emerging from the house. "Sokka says he doesn't want one with 'murder-y vibes.'"

"My father hasn't been here in over a decade," Zuko began, turning back to the entry of the house. "It is unlikely that there are… that… uhhhh…"

 _Red._

Katara had apparently changed too. Now she was wearing red. Fire-Nation red.

 _RED._

She had looked good in green, stunning in her native white and purple…

But red was just so… RED, and Zuko found himself somewhat mesmerized in the face of it.

"Zuko, you're staring," Katara said a small smile playing at her lips.

"What? What! I… what?"

Mai rolled her eyes as Katara's smile grew wider.

"You… uhhh… look nice?" Zuko said stupidly.

" _Nice_?"

"Uh… yes? Nice: adjective: pleasant, agreeable. Example: the sunny weather was nice out."

Katara turned to Mai. "Did he just give me the book definition of nice?"

"Yes, because he's an idiot," Mai said, rolling her eyes again despite a touch of fondness creeping into her voice. She turned away to head down to the beach to join her girlfriend.

"This is STILL a bad idea, Mai!" Zuko called after her, recovering himself momentarily. He turned back to Katara to follow up but almost immediately lost his train of thought.

He had somehow never imagined that Katara would show so much skin and somehow remain completely dressed. Unbound hair in a wide feminine topknot and dark skin wrapped in crimson and gold and-

"Well?" Katara said snapping his train of thought.

"Well," he repeated stupidly.

"…Sokka?"

" _Sokka?_ Yes, Sokka. He is your brother, and he has a boomerang."

Katara sighed. "Go help Sokka find a room please?"

"Right. Help Sokka. I can do that," Zuko said shaking himself.

"Good," Katara said with her own head shake. "Honestly. I don't look _that_ nice. Red isn't my color."

"No. It isn't."

"… _Excuse_ me?" Katara said dangerously.

"Red is MY color, and I never thought I'd live to see you wear it," Zuko breathed in wonder.

Apparently, whatever filter was supposed to exist between his brain and his mouth had been circumvented by the pure _redness_ of Katara's outfit.

A redness which now began to spread upwards to her face as she flushed.

"You're such a dork," she said quietly.

Zuko nodded slowly. "Yes. Dork."

She snorted. "Go. Sokka. Now!" She pointed back at the house, fighting off laughter.

"Right! Sokka. Something about vibes. I can do that," Zuko said shaking himself once again and moving into the Winter Palace.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Apparently, it was not _only_ Sokka who had concerns about "murder-y vibes," and so Zuko, brush and scrap parchment in hand, took the liberty of labeling all of the rooms with the names of their former occupants.

To avoid any problems, and as a way of testing himself, Zuko decided to take his father's suite himself. Even though, technically, the Fire-Lord's master bedroom was his by rights.

 _Would_ be his, if he had anything to say about it.

Azulon's rooms were instead eventually claimed by Sokka despite the fact that _his_ grandfather had lost his life at Azulon's hands. Apparently, it had happened so long ago that Sokka didn't get any "vibes" one way or another, and Azulon's dual love of fine weapons and maps overcame whatever minor ill-feeling there might have been. Suki, in a bold move for her, simply placed her luggage in the same room, flushing slightly at Sokka's wagging eyebrows, but resolute nonetheless.

Aang, unsurprisingly, had seized upon Iroh's room almost immediately. With its large windows, proximity to the kitchen, and its many painted screens, revealed beneath their dustcovers in a flourish of airbending, it was ideal for the airbender.

Toph descended like a natural disaster on what had once been Lu Ten's room. Situated as it was on the ground floor, and built halfway into the cliff face at the rear of the building, she found it ideal. Zuko winced as she blew out a portion of the wall, dragging a vast quantity of earth and stone into the room. He tried to remain calm as he attempted to convince her to restore the room, but he eventually simply left her to it, before his mouth could actually say something akin to "not under my roof, young lady."

He'd already lost enough arguments today.

In a surprising move, Mai took _Azula's_ old room, ostensibly to look for secrets and hidey-holes. Zuko didn't ask, but he assumed her real motive was to have a place to herself where no one, not even Ty Lee, would go willingly. She valued her privacy, and Zuko was sure that she would spend most nights with Ty Lee in his Aunt Ochi'hana's room anyway.

Katara had, before Zuko even labeled the rooms, moved into Ursa's.

Zuko wasn't sure whether to be pleased or terrified by that.

On the one hand, he was not surprised. Katara and his mother were both kind, nurturing, albeit exceptionally dangerous people, who shared a quiet ferocity. On the other hand, there was the distressing idea that, if he had fallen in love with a woman who was similar to his mother… that was just one more thing he had in common with his father.

For obvious reasons, this idea worried him.

So it was with a scowl on his face, and a mostly unconscious desire to punch everything that worried him until it stopped breathing, that Zuko dropped his own belongings in the room that Ozai had not been in for over a decade.

His father did not care for vacations. He thought they were _distractions,_ and distractions were a _weakness._

 _Yet another thing we have in common_ , Zuko thought irritably as he took in the sparsely furnished rooms.

The closets were only lightly populated with a few loose-fitting robes and some ceremonial sets of armor. There was only one portrait in the room, hung over the writing desk. It was a painting of Azulon, sitting on the throne, flanked by Iroh on one side and Ozai on the other. Iroh was grinning in this one too, while Ozai had his typical haughty look. Azulon just glowered, a surprisingly familiar looking scowl on his face, as though telling the painter to get a move on, the Fire-Lord's time was valuable.

Zuko's grandfather had always hated having his time wasted, which Zuko found heartening in remembrance, given that he felt the same way.

For the most part, however, the rooms were bare. After a cursory search Zuko discovered that Ozai seemed to have "forgotten" his copy of _LEADERSHIP_ in one of the drawers of his desk. It was, unsurprisingly, unannotated as Ozai had never been much of a military man. Certainly, he liked using force to achieve his ends, he was still an Akodo after all, but actual military strategy and tactics had been left to the War-College and the Admiralty.

Until Operation: Clean Sweep anyway.

After having swept and dusted the room, changed the sheets, and opened the windows, Zuko found himself with nothing else to do. He gave the copy of _LEADERSHIP_ to Sokka, who had a love for all things martial, neglecting to mention its original owner and thus its potential "murder-y vibes." Then he walked around the house making sure that everyone had familiarized themselves with the various escape routes and places of best defense in relation to their chosen rooms.

That accomplished and with nothing else presenting itself, Zuko began to pace in one of the open courtyards, still full of semi-nervous energy, a part of him waiting for the inevitable other sandal to drop.

Honestly, he wanted to go and find Aang and the Duke and start training. _Really_ training. To burn off excess energy and to assuage the growing doubt that he had made the right decision. But he knew that neither boy's head would be in it, they would need the rest of the day to settle in, and in the morning the three of them would be able to actually accomplish something.

Zuko _had_ sworn to help train the Avatar in firebending, but that did not mean that he liked the idea of being away from his troops. Not only were they another facet of his duty, but he felt a powerful sense of attachment to them. They had _chosen_ to come to his side, it wasn't just blind duty to his family that compelled them, they all (excepting whichever ones of them were actually Azula's spies) believed that he was doing the right thing. He had a responsibility to them, and coming to a vacation island and simply wasting his time would be a betrayal of the confidence they had entrusted in him.

"Stop pacing," Mai said quietly, startling said pacing to a halt as she seemed to appear out of nowhere at the edge of the courtyard. "Honestly, what is it about this island that makes you so nervous? You're worse than last time."

"It is not just the treasury this time, Mai, it is the whole flaming _war._ I've got things I should be doing, people I am responsible for, and I will not-"

"You also have a responsibility to yourself," she said pulling out one of her multitude of knives and examining its edge. "You're just going to drive yourself to distraction if you don't take a break now and then. Don't you agree, waterbender?" she called over Zuko's shoulder.

"I'll agree that stress isn't healthy," Katara said from behind him. "I find relaxation helpful in the face of future danger."

 _Flanked! I have been flanked! Don't turn around, she's probably still wearing red._

"I don't relax, you know that," he said aloud, _not_ turning around. "Both of you know that!"

"Well maybe you should _learn_ , hot-pants," Toph called from the courtyard's upper balcony. "Or, I could just beat the crap out of you until you stop fucking pacing. It's making my toes twitch!"

 _The enemy has the high ground!_ _Tactical withdrawal!_

"Well, I will go to my room then, and leave your toes in peace," Zuko said irritably. He turned left, so as to ensure that Katara, in her hypnotic red outfit, would be in his blind spot as he stalked away.

But suddenly the dry fountain in the center of the courtyard gurgled to life and water flew out of it, seeking him like a striking serpent. He dodged and spun, severing the stream with a blast of fire as Katara and Mai advanced on him. Toph leapt from the high railing of the balcony, shaking the whole palace in its foundations as she landed, and began bending stone at him.

Zuko leapt and kicked off one of the balcony's support columns, dodging the small boulders that Toph sent his way and simultaneously bending a wave of fire from his feet at the ground between them. He was careful to avoid her bare feet, but was able to menace her and Katara away from his planned point of egress.

That accomplished he bolted towards the staircase, but found himself forced to divert away as Mai lobbed knives, handle end first, at the backs of his knees, a typical disabling maneuver.

Forced to divert… right into the path of a small ocean, bent into existence by Katara, beautiful dangerous smile over top of equally beautiful red…

 _Nope. Not looking at that._

The ocean started to become an iceberg but Zuko, defying expectations, was already inside it, bending the air around himself too hot to allow a flash freeze.

 _Toph should have backed up this flanking maneuver with stone… they've never really practiced teamwork with one another, have they?_

Once inside the water, Zuko bent thunder, bursting the enormous globe, sending the warm water splashing on to his three opponents, drenching them.

Zuko grinned at the three soaked and now _very_ angry looking women in front of him.

 _Good. Destroy whatever unity they have. I EXCEL at free-for-alls._

Zuko leapt upwards, grabbing the rail of the balcony, and flipping himself upwards on to it, avoiding another volley of knives from Mai as he did so. He burst forward, making his footsteps purposely erratic, avoiding searching rippling stone that sought to bind him in place, but drew up short as Katara swept into view, blocking the route to his room, riding a wave up to the second floor. He felt the earth shake again as Toph launched herself into the air to try and land behind him in a classic pincer maneuver.

But at the moment she was in the air… where she could not _see_.

Zuko, a brief flare of fire from his feet, sped backwards, managing to intercept Toph's trajectory. He caught her by the back of her collar and her belt, spun her around once in a maneuver reminiscent of water-style, and flung the now furiously swearing girl right at Katara. She tried to catch her with water, but misjudged the speed, and took the hardheaded earthbender right in the stomach.

"HA!" Zuko barked, then dropped to the ground to avoid the volley of knives and ice the came flying at him from two different directions. He popped up in an instant and with another leap and flip he propelled himself on to the roof.

"What are we doing?" Sokka's voice came from below as Zuko sprinted away from the roof's edge.

"Catch Zuko!" Katara and Toph said with the same tone of fury and at the same time.

"Oooo! Ima get _new_ boomerang," Sokka said excitedly.

There was a sudden crashing roar as Toph burst through the red tile roof, flinging shingles everywhere. Zuko caught a pair of them in his hands and flung them back at the girl.

They were _clay_ , however, and they smashed on her fists like eggshells in the second before she stomped, bending nearly a hundred of them off the roof and sending them, like an entire daikyu company's volley, at Zuko with a forceful gesture. As much as Zuko was going to regret the damage to what was essentially _his_ house, he had no choice but to blast a hole in the roof and drop down and away from certain ceramic death.

After the dust cleared, he found himself in the Fire-Lord's rooms… with Suki… who was apparently still in the process of picking out an outfit to wear… as she currently did _not_ have one on.

She screamed.

Zuko, covering his eye, fled, far more panicked than he had been of Toph.

Then he blindly slammed into Sokka who was returning at the sound of Suki's cry and their heads collided with a clunking sound. Zuko, now slightly dazed, spun away, his eye still covered. Sokka, whose head it seemed was made of less stern stuff, simply lay on the floor groaning.

 _New rule: pretty naked girls are BANNED in warfare. Proscribed weaponry. Out of bounds. War crimes._

He took his hand away as he burst out of the Fire-Lord's suite and found his absolute _favorite_ war crime coming at him, once again dragging a small lake with her.

"SHINJO!" Katara shouted and charged.

"AKODO!" Zuko roared back, and flew forward, a furious grin on his face.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"There, you feel better, right?" Katara asked, smirking down at him.

Zuko, who found himself on his back, arms encased in ice, legs embedded in stone, grimaced up at her. "If I say 'yes,' will I be released from captivity?"

"Couldn't hurt your chances," Toph said idly, her foot on his chest and her pinky finger lodged in one nostril.

Despite the situation Zuko found himself in, the two bending girls had not actually been his downfall. He had been able to anticipate and engage each of them one at a time, withdrawing tactically when necessary.

 _We're going to have to work on that,_ Zuko thought.

He _had_ however been eventually brought down by the stealthy and _unlikely_ coalition of Mai and, a now thankfully clothed, Suki. Once he had found himself somewhat restrained Toph and Katara had ruthlessly taken advantage.

Sokka had spent most of the fight laying on the floor, still dizzy.

"Yes. I feel _much_ better," Zuko said flatly, nodding his head. "Now… RELEASE ME!"

"Hmmmmmm… No," Toph said.

Katara stifled a laugh as Aang walked into the courtyard.

"Avatar? Release me, and you will be allowed to sleep in for an extra _hour_ tomorrow," Zuko said commandingly.

"Or, I could just leave you there, and not have to get up at all," Aang said with a smile.

"Damn… Release me… and… I will tell you where to obtain the best egg custards on the island."

"Ooo!" Aang said happily, and with a pair of kata he removed the ice and stone from Zuko's limbs.

"Spoilsport," Toph muttered.

"What can I say, I'm a fan of desserts," Aang said shrugging.

"A known weakness," Zuko said stretching his arms and legs. "I once had to sit through a half an hour briefing regarding your propensity for visiting sweet shops. I really should have just piled a bunch of cakes under a box, propped up on a stick with a string attached."

"That… might have actually worked," Toph said, affecting a musing tone.

"There might have also been a sign which said 'free sweets,'" Zuko offered.

"Oh, that would be key," Toph said nodding.

"You know, I _could_ have just left you there?" Aang said with a wry smile.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

A pattern was established.

Aang was the reason they were there. Aang was the reason that Zuko was not huddled in a soggy tent with the soldiers who were risking their lives and honor for his cause. Aang _needed_ to be ready to help fight a war and to face the Fire-Lord. So, Zuko and Sokka, who Zuko discovered had something of a mania for scheduling, filled the airbender's time with training.

Mornings firebending with Zuko, afternoons earthbending with Toph, post-lunch second firebending with Zuko, and continued participation with the entire group's teamwork exercises in the hour or so before Katara left to go and get dinner started.

Zuko wasn't taking _any_ of them into a war-zone without being sure that they could look after themselves, and watch one another's backs, effectively.

The days began to blur together, kata after kata, routine after routine.

The nights, and the limited spaces in between practices, however, were a different matter entirely.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"I gotta say, this is a pretty sweet place," Sokka said as he plopped down next to where Zuko was meditating on the front porch of the winter residence. "Be good to kick our feet up and relax for a bit."

"I don't know how many times I have to say this, but this is NOT a vacation," Zuko said. "We are here to _train,_ to make ourselves ready in body and mind to fight a war against my people. You may remember them? The ones who have been fighting since the dawn of history? We must train. Not… _relax._ "

"Yeah, no I get you, but it's the whole 'mind' part that I'm talking about. You can only row so far for so long before you need to stop and take a breather, find some wacky time-wasting nonsense. You push too hard and… SNAP, BOOM, AARRGHHH!" Sokka mimed a variety of explosions, followed by a gruesome pantomime death.

"Sokka, being focused is _important._ You cannot just _lounge about_ hoping everything just works itself out. Anything less than your full attention is both unworthy and dishonorable."

Sokka sat there for a long moment staring out at the sea as the Sun hit the horizon over rolling waves.

"What are you going to do after the war?" he asked quietly.

Zuko blinked at the sudden change in subject and the surprisingly serious tone. "I will rule the Fire-Nation. Provided there is anything left of it."

"Yeah, but what else _other_ than that?"

"…I don't follow."

"What are you going to do when you're not Fire-Lording; in your free time?"

"I won't have any free time. Fire-Lord… _ing_ is a full-time occupation. I will either be working towards the betterment of my people, or bettering _myself_ so that I might better serve them. That is what being Fire-Lord means."

"Seems… kinda bleak."

Zuko shrugged. "It is my destiny."

"Yeah, ok, but is that what you _want_ to do?"

"What I _want_ is immaterial. I am Akodo, I serve the nation."

"Yeah, but… so is your dad."

"I would rather not discuss this with you, Sokka," Zuko said, tone just shy of a growl.

"Ok, look, I know that… it's cool if I call him crazy, right?" He waited for Zuko's nod before he continued. "Your crazy dad does whatever he wants and that's _bad_ , but that doesn't mean that _you_ have to be the complete opposite, right? You're still allowed to… you know… do stuff for yourself."

"Am I?" Zuko said quietly. "For the last three generations my family has made war upon the rest of the world. Perhaps what we _want_ is not in everyone's best interest."

" _Ghost,_ buddy, you're NOT fucking Sozin."

 _A betrayer, from a line of betrayers!_ Zuko had yelled at his uncle.

"My family-"

"And you're not your freezing family either. Sure your dad is a psycho and your sister-" Sokka cut himself off and amended whatever he had planned to say as Zuko shot him a glare, "your sister… has _issues,_ but I hear your uncle was pretty cool." He slung his arm over Zuko's shoulder in what, among the Unicorn, was a friendly gesture. "We're all of us different people and, from what I've seen you're a pretty alright dude. A bit on the intense side but… alright."

"… Thank you," Zuko said, bowing slightly from the seated position.

"It's just that," and here Sokka pulled out his new boomerang and began inspecting its sharpened edge, "all this talk of 'betterment' of this and that _sounds_ all selfless and honorable and stuff, but it gets me wondering… where _exactly_ does that leave my _sister?"_

 _Uh oh._

"I was cool with the whole… _thing_ on the balloon ride," Sokka continued, waving the angled weapon airily. "We had a job to do and, from the way she had been acting, I really didn't think anything was going to come of it. But _now,_ she's got that look in her eye again. That same look she had when she tried to adopt a wounded _wild_ polarbear-dog pup."

"I love your sister, Sokka. I would never-"

"Ah, but you already _did_ , didn't you?" Sokka said, turning his boomerang this way and that in the light of the setting sun. "You were in love with her and you _still_ didn't take her side. You begin to see my problem?"

Zuko nodded.

"I get it. You're Fire-Nation, it's duty before smoochies with you guys. But _I,_ and Katara, are Unicorn and that net doesn't catch fish with us. What I want to know is, when the ice is bad, and it comes down to what's best for your people and what's best for my sister, which way will you leap?"

"Sokka… I am sworn to-"

"If the spirits came down, right now, and offered you everything you hope to achieve in this war, in exchange for my sister's life, what would you do?"

Zuko blinked. "Well… I would…"

 _What_ _WOULD_ _I do?_ he thought. Certainly, it sounded good on paper. One life, for the rest of the world. A continent spared from genocide, his sister's restored sanity, prosperity and happiness for his people. Zuko had no doubt that Katara herself would likely agree to that bargain. But…

 _What the FUCK would be the point?_

"FUCK that," Zuko growled. "I made that choice once before, it _wasn't_ worth it."

"So, if it comes down to it…"

"Her. Always her."

"Even if it's not in your people's best interests?"

"Sokka, I cannot just abandon my-"

"I'm not asking you to light the whole thing up just to keep her warm at night. I just want to know that she's going to be a priority. Your _number one_ priority. She's my _sister_ , I know you understand that. I won't have her thrown over for some Fire-Nation girl just because it _might_ smooth things over."

Zuko turned his head to fix Sokka with his one yellow eye.

"Anyone suggests that in my presence and I'll put their _head_ on a _spike_."

"Oh-kay, a _bit_ extreme, but I appreciate the sentiment," Sokka said as he removed his arm from Zuko and put his boomerang away. "It's… OK to have something that's just yours, alright? And if that something happens to be my sister… well… I can deal with that.

The two of them sat for a long moment, watching the last rays of the Sun sink below the horizon.

"So…" Zuko said cautiously. "Do we high-five?"

"…Fuck yeah, we high-five."

And so they did so.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Dinners in the winter palace were an oddity for Zuko.

Before, as a child, dinners at the Akodo vacation residence had been somewhat nerve-wracking. He had nowhere near the grace of his sister or the conversational skills of his mother, and his Nana Ilah had insisted on both. That, as well as the entire family's attendance.

Excuses were _not_ tolerated.

Every dinner was a formal affair, with many courses, served in a room specifically designed for the process, with many silently opening doors that would allow servants to appear and disappear, bringing tea refills and new courses, all without disrupting the delicate flow of conversation and the sense of focused tranquility that permeated the affair.

Dinners in the winter palace in the twelfth year of Ozai's reign were… different.

Firstly and foremostly, Katara had expounded at great length and volume over how ridiculous it was to have the dining room at the opposite side of the building from the kitchens. That, she said, was putting aside the silliness of having a _separate room_ , only for eating one specific meal. This situation explained, and deemed thoroughly unacceptable, she had directed Sokka and Zuko to find and move a table long enough for the nine of them into the _hallway_ right outside of the kitchen.

Then, an hour or so before sundown, the assembled group of barbarians, soldiers, spies, and children would descend upon that table like a loud poorly organized flock of piranha-gulls. Eventually, Katara would appear at the kitchen door, sliding it open with her foot and carrying a pot of something to the table.

Then she would leave the door… _open._ Leaving it open… allowing everyone on one side of the table able to see _into_ the kitchen… where the food was _prepared._

Zuko was reasonably certain his grandmother would have had an apoplectic fit at even the _idea._

While Zuko was used to such behavior from Katara, it was exceptionally jarring to see it executed in a place and situation that had always been so rigid and formal.

Then there was the meal itself.

His grandmother's formal dinners had always been presented in a long slow series of different small dishes. There was an order to who ate each course first, based on the flow of conversation, age, and the contents of the dish being served.

By contrast, Katara would plop a pot full of something down in the center of the table, then duck back to the kitchen to get the vegetarian option for Aang. Sokka, and sometimes the Duke, would take the opportunity to serve themselves and then, after she returned, Katara would dish out whatever remained to those who had not been as impatient as her brother.

And all the while there would be _talking._

Nana Ilah's dinners had been mostly quiet, speaking in muted tones about polite subjects. Even Iroh had been constrained to stoicism and civility in the face of his mother.

Katara's dinners were much the same around a table as they had been a campfire, loud, boisterous, and with even odds for one or more food items being thrown at someone. As before, Zuko remained mostly silent, either simply listening to the conversation or attempting to surreptitiously read one report or another.

Katara thought that _reading_ at the table was rude.

This was the same Katara who had, on more than one occasion, thrown an egg roll at her brother.

It was bizarre, and odd, and somewhat disconcerting.

And in spite of all that, he loved her for it.

But in the aftermath of one such cacophonous dinner, Zuko found himself alone at the table, still engrossed in a text relating to the founding of Yu Dao and a geographical survey of the area, while the gentle clinking of ceramic wafted in the air through the still open kitchen door. Startled out of his musing by the sudden awareness of the silence, Zuko rose from the table and padded silently through the open door and into the kitchen.

And there was Katara, surrounded by pots and pans in various states of cleanliness, her arms out to the side as she bent the water in the large metal basin, cleaning the plates that had so recently been used.

 _Well, that's something,_ Zuko thought wryly. _My mother never washed a dish in her life._

He was certain that Ursa, had it been required, would have been more than happy to do so. But it never had been. She had been a part of the noble branch of the Kitsu family, then princess-consort, then…

 _Damnit. She MUST be washing her own dishes at this point. So much for that._

While Zuko mused silently, his yellow eye affixed on Katara in the shadowy sunset lit kitchen, she stopped in her task. With a flick, she bent the sweat born from Ember Island's humidity from her brow and then with a wince and a muttered curse she began rubbing at an obviously sore spot on her neck.

Zuko, without much thought, drifted forward and gently placed his hand, warmed with his bending, on the spot.

Katara jumped slightly, but then made a soft pleased noise in the back of her throat as she leaned back against him that made Zuko's blood increase in temperature. His thumb dug into the knot at her right shoulder as he leaned down and placed a kiss on the other side of her neck, right below her ear, a place that he had discovered in the dusty badlands outside of Gaoling.

She made another pleased noise, but she nudged him away from the spot by nuzzling him, her temple gently bumping his head.

"Slow," she said quietly.

Zuko made an acknowledging rumble in the back of his throat and slipped both his arms around her middle, drawing her close and nuzzling her back.

They stood like that for a long time.

"You do not have to do this you know," Zuko said quietly breaking the silence.

Katara sighed, and he could practically hear the eye-roll in her voice as she leaned back against him further. "You probably think it's demeaning, don't you?"

"I acknowledge the necessity of the activity," Zuko said, grunting in agreement, "plates must be washed, but there are _nine_ of us, and it is _always-_ "

"I don't mind," Katara said, her hands on his.

"...Am I allowed to mind for you?"

"No."

"You understand that I am going to anyways?"

She spun in his arms and wrapped her arms around his neck. Despite her mostly pleased seeming body language she fixed him with a somewhat fierce glare.

"What is it about dishwashing that is so offensive to you?"

"You… you are a warrior, one of the strongest ones here. You should not be…" he trailed off, trying to find a polite way of phrasing it.

"Treated like a _servant_?" Katara said, raising her eyebrow.

 _Ok. I'm beginning to think she can read minds. Which would be tremendously unfortunate._

"Perhaps… 'treated with disrespect,' would be a better way of putting it," Zuko said aloud.

She pondered that for a long moment, her arms still around his neck.

"I like helping people," she said finally.

"That does not mean you should have to do everyth-" Katara cut him off with a soft, slightly sudsy, finger to the lips.

"I like knowing that people depend on me, that I am _needed_. Not just for protection, but for the simple comforts that make the day bearable. I've been a… a _mother_ to Sokka ever since our mother passed. Aang and Toph, all of them, need that too. Someone to just… really _care_ about them. I like being needed."

"But… it makes you angry."

"Maybe a little. I do get a little fed up when nobody seems to appreciate my work; but then I remember what my Gran-gran used to say. 'It's not the point or the shaft that makes a spear a spear. It's what holds them _together_ that makes it what it is.' If I am the glue that keeps everyone together, I can think of nothing more… honorable than that."

 _...So maybe the dinners weren't that dissimilar._

Nana Ilah had always insisted, and maybe that formality was the only way she knew to ensure that… togetherness.

Zuko nodded, both at Katara's words and the personal realization, but continued to voice his deeper concern.

"You were never like that with _me_ though."

"I was, a little," Katara said, biting at her lower lip. "You needed me too. You just didn't need me to… _do_ anything for you, you just needed me to _be._ It was… refreshing, like a little vacation. I could leave Katara the 'mom' behind and just… well… I really found Katara the warrior in the badlands. Then… then you saw me at my worst, my most violent and petty and selfish, and you didn't… you didn't even flinch."

"And neither did you," Zuko said quietly.

"Well, that's not true," Katara said smiling up at him. "You used to scare the penguin-shit out of me."

"And yet you never flinched. Bravery is not the absence of fear, but simply the honorable response to it. Your bravery, your conviction, is what first… made me uncertain."

"...And _now_?"

Zuko dipped down and kissed her fiercely and she responded instantly.

"Not even a little bit," Zuko said after they separated.

Katara smiled briefly but then groaned a little bit and made a valiant effort at headbutting him in the chest. " _Slow_ ," she said, now sounding supremely regretful.

"Slow," Zuko agreed speaking into her hair. "Adjective: moving or operating at a low speed; not quick or fast." He pressed another kiss to the top of her head and held her for a moment.

"Right. Slow," Katara said with a nod. "We are being _adults_ about this. Talking about things and pacing ourselves and not jumping into things and being dignified…"

"I _am_ quite partial to dignity."

"Yes. Dignity: adjective:... uh… fancy and… slow?"

"Sure," Zuko said with a low chuckle. "Fancy and slow."

Katara glared up at him.

"I will _always_ make allowances for your lack of education," Zuko said grinning at her.

"Keep it up buster, and we'll go from slow to _glacial._ "

"Then stop being so damn adorable all the time."

"As you have pointed out, I am the _strongest_ warrior here," Katara said with a sniff. "As such, I _demand_ your respect."

"I said ' _one of._ ' I give Toph even odds against either of us, and your short-range defense _still_ needs work."

"Oh? You think you can _take me_ , grumpy-bear?"

"I do, and I would _prove it_ too," Zuko said, his hands now on either side of her as he leaned forward slightly, pressing her against the sink. "but, as you said, we are going _slow_."

"...and?"

"And you are _never_ more beautiful than when you are fighting me," Zuko said growling in an _entirely_ non-angry manner.

"That sounds like more of a _you_ problem."

"Yes, and I have a very direct and simple method of solving problems."

"And you think _that's_ going to work?"

"I think… that even a _glacier_ can melt."

There was a brief pause as they absorbed that line before Katara began laughing, dissolving the sexual tension back into an entirely comfortable good-natured conversation.

"Oh, you're _ridiculous_ ," Katara said through the laughter.

" _You_ are the one who brought up the ice metaphor."

"You are ok with it though?" Katara asked after she had regained herself. "Ok with waiting a bit? I know it's kind of pointless after we've already…"

"As before, I find your points both reasonable and well-thought-out. I will wait as long as you would like, go as _slow_ as you would like."

 _But I will NEVER stop wanting you._

"Ok, good," Katara said brusquely, her hands going to her hair to ensure that Zuko had not mussed it overmuch. "We _are_ going to be mature and dignified about this. This relationship is going to be based on mutual respect, and… fancy-slow dignity and… and… honor. NOT sex."

Zuko nodded in agreement, he was quite partial to honor too.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"This… is _all_ your fault," Katara said tiredly.

The midday Sun streamed in through the windows of Zuko's room, the frame of which quivered in response to the muted sounds of Toph and Aang's earthbending lesson. Pillows and sheets and clothes were flung about the formerly barren space in a great disarray, much like the two samurai partially entwined among them, sprawled out and very very naked, lying in the wreckage of Zuko's bed.

"How _precisely_ is this _my_ fault?" Zuko rumbled, far too lethargic and _happy_ to be irritable. He thought that Katara bursting through his bedroom door, her eyes blazing as she tackled him and frantically ripped off his clothes was a pretty good indicator that _she_ was the guilty party in this instance.

Not that he had even _contemplated_ trying to stop her.

"Do you… _have_ to train Aang with no shirt on?"

"...what?"

"It's very distracting. And you're already distracting enough without wandering around half-naked."

"...I am?"

Katara attempted to glare at him through the force of the afterglow, but it was far from her best work and, as usual, had the opposite of its intended effect.

"Aang is still a bit wild with his flame," Zuko offered by way of explanation, a now somewhat smug look on his face. "I would rather not lose another shirt because of his inexperience… You don't have to watch, do you?"

"But what if one of you gets hurt?"

"Then that will be a valuable life lesson. Pain engenders respect."

Katara groaned in mock unhappiness, burying her face in her pillow. "Can you _please_ try and sound slightly _less_ evil?"

"Oh. Right… How about 'from the heart of suffering itself is drawn the means of inspiration and survival?'"

"That's a bit better. Was _that_ _one_ Akodo?"

"No. That was High-Shugenja Kyokaioka, the younger brother of Fire-Lord Yamagi."

"You've got a quote for everything."

"Blame my uncle. He can't go for more than a quarter hour without either quoting somebody, invoking a cryptic metaphor, or making a lame pun involving tea. It would be endearing if it wasn't so annoying." Zuko blinked for a moment, mildly startled at the direction the conversation had taken. "Spirits. I hope he's alright. I had really hoped…" he trailed away.

Katara scooted closer to him, gave him a peck on the lips, then nodded encouragingly.

"I… had half hoped that he would show up with Rin and Bo in the war camp," Zuko admitted somewhat hesitantly. "I know that… I suppose I betrayed him just as much as-"

"Toph tells me your uncle is very wise. I'm sure that he's alright."

"I really hope so," Zuko said quietly.

Katara smiled at him softly for a brief moment, seeming utterly beatific and entirely at peace. As such, her sudden and violent assault upon him, armed with a pillow, was entirely unexpected

"Ow. Ash and bone, what are you-"

"Stop _distracting_ me," Katara shouted in mock anger, rising to a kneeling position and gaining the advantage of the high ground in her pillow-based assault. "I was _yelling_ at you. For using your sexy wiles to get me into bed when I have explicitly and repeatedly stated-"

Zuko began to laugh softly. "My… My _sexy_ … _what_?" The laughs became louder.

"Stop. Laughing," Katara said, laughing despite herself as she beat him about the face and chest with her pillow. Despite his laughter, Zuko managed to snatch the weapon out of her hand and hold it up and out of her reach.

"Give me back my pillow!"

" _Your_ pillow? This is _my_ flaming room."

"I slept on it! That means it's mine!"

"You napped!"

"GIVE!"

"I will return the hostage when you have managed to satisfactorily explain these 'sexy wiles' that I allegedly have."

"You know damn well what I mean! Your sexy wiles are the only reason you _ever_ beat me."

"What?" Zuko said sounding entirely scandalized. "I have _never_ , in my life, used 'sexy wiles' in combat. I don't even... Name a _single_ instance!"

"How about the North Pole!"

"The North… I used a _stalling_ tactic! How is _that_ sexy?"

"Oh I don't know, Mr 'Maybe-I-want-you-all-to-myself,' why don't you tell me?"

"Well, that was just… wait a minute, you liked me back at Shiro Doji?"

"NO! No. Just… well… when a handsome older guy says something like that… I was _flustered,_ OK?"

"You did not seem 'flustered' to me. You were kicking my ass around the field like fat on a griddle."

"Yeah? Well, I'd have beat you, if you hadn't been so…" Katara lunged for and secured _her_ pillow, "distracting."

"What about after Chin?" Zuko asked, not making another play for the pillow, now clutched to Katara's chest. "I certainly didn't say anything there that could be _misconstrued_ as 'sexy wiles.'"

Shockingly, Katara flushed slightly and mumbled something into her reclaimed pillow.

"I am afraid I didn't catch that," Zuko said.

"...stupid beard."

"Beard?" Zuko rubbed at the possibly offensive facial hair. "What's wrong with my beard? I suppose I could start-"

"NO! You… you and your stupid… rugged…" she exhaled sharply, sounding somewhat disgusted with herself.

"Ah. So, you _like_ my beard."

"...It isn't terrible."

"Well, I am glad you find me 'not terrible' then."

"You're ridiculous," Katara said, falling back onto her side on the bed.

" _I_ am ridiculous?" Zuko asked incredulously. "You are the one who is in _my_ room, clutching _my_ pillow, and trying to claim it is _my_ fault you are naked. Clearly, this is all _your_ fault or, at the very least, _mostly_ your fault."

"And how precisely is it _mostly_ my fault?" Katara asked, a dangerous glitter in her eyes again.

"As if you didn't know? The way you… sashay around… wearing all that _red._ "

"For Yue's sake, I do _not_ look that good in-" she cut off as Zuko began emanating a low growling noise as he slid closer to her.

"It's very…" he inched closer, his eye on hers, "very…" their noses touched "... _not_ terrible."

And then he kissed her, and she kissed him back.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"Ok. THAT time was your fault."

"Yes. Yes, it was."

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"We need to talk," Mai said, startling Zuko from his somewhat guilty contemplation.

 _Why is it that when a woman says that to me, I feel as though something terrible is about to happen?_ Zuko thought, turning from his "contemplation" of the two samurai training in front of him to look at Mai.

Mai had, as usual, appeared out of nowhere behind him on the black sand beach that was the front yard of the winter palace. Earlier in the day, he had been persuaded, from multiple fronts, to sacrifice his allotted post-lunch training time to Katara. Katara was of the opinion that Aang, while competent, still needed more practice with waterbending. Aang was of the opinion that he needed a break from fire, and that a change of pace would do him some good. Zuko was of the opinion that _fire_ would be the most useful in a fight against the _Fire-_ Lord but, as usual, his opinion was forcibly altered by Katara, due to her persistence and her reasonably good points. Aang _was_ the Avatar, and water _was_ a good counter to fire. The different styles, when juxtaposed, _could_ grant great insight into each other.

In the face of these many salient, and _loud_ , points Zuko had acquiesced and had in fact gone down to the beach to observe the waterbending lesson and Katara's own personal teaching style.

So far, all he had _really_ gleaned was that Katara preferred to teach in _only_ her underwraps.

 _No wonder the boy prefers waterbending._

Aang _was_ a monk, and he _was_ trying his best, but the sight of a soaking wet, half-naked, languidly swaying, nineteen-year-old woman in only her underwear was…

 _Distracting. Very VERY distracting._

As such, even after Mai spoke to him, it took a serious mental effort for Zuko to bring his focus to her.

"Talk," he managed finally, his eye unconsciously darting back to the ocean.

"I would rather you were able to pay attention," Mai said flatly.

Zuko, restraining an unseemly grumble, got to his feet and turned to make his way back to the palace.

"I have concerns about our strategy," Mai said as she walked beside him. "Things are not going according to any plan that I had anticipated,"

"No? Well, I admit that having an entire legion defect en masse was a _bit_ surprising," Zuko said. "But surely that's a good th-"

"I am not talking about the army," Mai said, cutting him off sharply. "I am more concerned with post-war considerations."

" _Post-_ war? Maybe we should focus on _winning_ the damned thing first?"

"Perhaps, if you want to be a short-sighted fool, but I prefer to consider the long game."

Zuko snorted in mild irritation at the insult, but let it pass. Though he would never have been able to tell a year ago, he could see now that Mai was surprisingly agitated. In deference to their friendship, and debt of honor he owed her, Zuko tried to figure out what it was as the two of them continued in silence, making their way to Azula's old room.

Zuko had not been in this room in years. As much as Azula had delighted in invading his room on a regular basis, mostly just to try and irritate him he was sure, she guarded her own privacy with a ferocity. The walls of the room were lined with bookshelves, all empty now, giving the room a hollow barren look.

"Alright, go ahead," Zuko said after Mai had shut the door behind him.

"You are in love with the barbarian," Mai said bluntly.

 _Oh, good. Starting out WONDERFULLY,_ Zuko thought.

"I would _appreciate it_ if you did not call her that," he said aloud, warning plain in his voice.

"You are going to marry her," Mai said, ignoring the warning, and plunging on.

"We… have not really discussed it," Zuko said, trying not to think of the necklace still secreted in his armor.

"Oh, well I guess THAT makes it better then?" Mai said, practically snarling, acid now entirely audible.

"What does this have to do with… well, _anything?_ Why is this-"

"And what about _me?"_

"You?" Zuko rocked back in surprise. "I… we… Mai, we 'broke up.' What in the Sun's name- Did you think that we were going to- You're with _Ty Lee_ , for the spirits' sake!"

"Yes... for now. I will admit that I allowed my… feelings to overcome my good sense, but that does not mean that I-"

"'Good sense?' Mai…" Zuko sighed "You are in _love_ with her. You told me so yourself. Why wouldn't you-"

"Because it won't work," Mai snapped. "The Sengoku does not change that fact. I… the safest, most logical, choice is for the two of us to-"

"Mai, I care about you, but I am not going to marry you. You…" Zuko shook his head. "This whole conversation is ridiculous." He turned to leave, and a pair of shuriken, from the set _he_ had given her, whizzed past his ear and embedded themselves in the door, jamming it shut.

"Ash _,_ Mai! What do you think you-"

"I will _not_ be cast aside, Zuko," Mai hissed, advancing on him, her tawny eyes wide and furious. "You cannot… cannot just _use me_ and then expect me to just go away when I'm not needed. I won't… I _won't._ "

 _Ash and bone, she's really worried._

Mai was practically quivering with emotion, something that Zuko had not seen from her since just before they both set themselves against his father. Zuko was as baffled as he had been at first that last time, but this time he was both more in control of himself and certain of his responsibilities.

So, he took a deep breath and let it out, calming himself.

"You are worried… and I do not understand why," he said facing her down, trying to keep his voice and posture calm. "Please, explain yourself." He actually managed to conjure a small smirk. "Use _small_ words."

Mai actually snorted in a huff of somewhat bitter mirth at that.

"I… I cannot be with Ty. Not publicly. I had assumed, until very recently, that _our_ plan was still going forward. That in the aftermath of the war we would be married, and that you and I would watch one another's backs. But _now_ I find that you are… _consorting…_ with that dirty, ill-bred, barbari-"

"Take care in your _words,_ Shosuro Mai," Zuko growled.

Mai stiffened at his tone and actually scowled back at him. "I will NOT be cast aside for some… some…"

"Mai, I will never… abandon you," Zuko said softly, but with complete sincerity. "I owe you my _life_. You are my _friend_."

" _Azula_ was my friend too," Mai said bitterly, her eyes falling to the floor.

Zuko sighed again and took a step forward, taking Mai by her shoulders. "I am _not_ Azula. You _know_ that."

"Prove it," Mai said, stepping out of his grasp. "Tell me the plan, Zuko. Tell me how _I_ come out of this with my life and honor intact?"

Zuko paused for a moment, considering. He had not given a great deal of thought to the aftermath of the war. He had spent a great deal of time on planning for the hear-and-now, training Aang, military strategy, making excuses to walk around without his shirt on now that he had found out that Katara liked that sort of thing. On some level he was actually a little scared to formulate plans for a successful Sengoku. As though thinking about it might jinx it and make it an impossibility.

 _Mai is nervous too. She just wants guarantees. Certainties._

And so he thought about it for a few minutes.

"After the war…" Zuko began, "… you will be my Minister of the Exterior. The Left Hand of the Throne. If you want it. If not, you and Ty can… well, ash… you can do anything you want."

"That's not good enough."

"… you don't love her?"

"I… yes… I do."

"Then how can that _not_ be enough?"

"I… I can't."

"Why not?"

"We… I… no one will," Mai sighed somewhat bitterly again. "I just _can't._ "

"Why not?" Zuko repeated. "Ash and bone, Mai. I haven't seen you this happy since we were-"

"Because I don't _get_ to be happy!" Mai shouted.

Mai never shouted.

 _She's… afraid?_ Zuko thought in surprise. Then his mangled brow furrowed in anger.

"Yes. You do," he said aloud, voice flat.

Mai took another step away from him, visibly trying to gain control of herself. "Zuko, there are certain expectations for a samurai of the-"

"No. Fuck that," Zuko growled.

"A Fire-Lord must take better care of his language," Mai said, attempting to re-establish her poise with normal wry sarcasm.

"A _Fire-Lord_ can say whatever the _fuck_ he wants," Zuko snapped, looming over her. " _I_ will be the Fire-Lord and _you_ will be my Left Hand. Is this _clear_ , Shosuro Mai?"

Mai nodded, and then looked mildly surprised that she had done so.

"In return for this service, you may have almost anything you want. If that happens to be Ikoma Ty Lee, then it will be so. If it gives you even the barest hint of happiness, I will see it done. Do you UNDERSTAND?"

"Zuko, you cannot just shout away millennia of custom and tradition. The Shugenja will have a fit."

"Then the Shugenja can throw themselves into their volcanoes for all I care."

"You cannot just-"

"Yes. Yes, I can. You are my best friend and you saved my life. If I ever take the throne it will only be because of you."

"I did my duty," Mai said with a dismissive shake of her head. "I only did my duty, to you, and to my family, when I stopped Azula from killing you. That's all that was."

"I… did not mean at Boiling Rock," Zuko said, his voice losing its anger.

A pair of tawny eyes flicked back up to his in a confused question.

"Three years, Mai. For three years I had _nothing._ Nothing to look forward to, nothing but unending pointless searching and dishonor. Nothing… but a letter from you, and Ty, once a month. Sometimes I think that was all that kept me going, that there were… three people back home that I knew cared. That, and being incredibly stubborn."

Mai snorted and looked away from him, blinking rapidly.

"If it makes you happy, you can have it, alright? I cannot marry you, but I can give you almost anything else. And I will _always_ have your back." He grinned. "And all _you_ have to do is keep me alive. Seems easy enough."

"Oh, well, as long as it's not something _too_ onerous," Mai said her tone still dry, but her face showing the barest hint of a smile. She huffed out a breath and turned to face Zuko completely. "Left Hand of the Throne, huh?"

"Well, I think you would be good at it, and it would never be boring. But if you'd rather a different position…"

"No. I accept your offer… Your Highness."

"Mai, you don't have to-"

"If I'm going to do this, I'd like to do it right," she said. With a nod she sank to one knee, a single hand, palm up, touching the floor in the traditional Scorpion style. She drew a breath to begin, but stopped to look up at Zuko.

"I reserve the right to tell you when you are being an idiot," she said, raising one eyebrow.

"Actually, I insist upon that. You can ask Jee for confirmation."

"…This means I'm going to be his boss doesn't it?" Mai said, a tiny and slightly malicious smirk appearing on her face.

Zuko nodded with a smirk of his own before making his face solemn, as was befitting of what was about to happen

"I, Shosuro Mai, samurai of the Scorpion, swear to serve and protect Akodo Zuko, his heirs, and successors and to…"

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"So, when are we going?" Toph asked.

"A good question," Zuko said, not looking up from the intelligence reports that Mai had _allowed_ him to have. "Mai is the one to ask, however. She has, rather obstinately, maintained lone control over communications. We will have to simply train Aang to the best of our abilities until-"

"That's NOT what I meant! When are we going on _our_ field trip?"

"…I'm sorry?"

"Everyone else got to go on some kickass, life-changing, adventure field-trip with you, I just wanna know when it's MY fucking turn."

"Uhhh… well…"

"I figure we go find the secrets of earthbending, then have a touching emotional badgershit moment as we bond over the shared experience of having super posh parents. Then… ice cream."

"…You just want ice cream, don't you?"

"I would not be opposed," Toph offered.

"The ice cream is very doable, but I don't think that reminiscing about our parents would be very productive. The idea that your parents didn't want you to _bend_ is… well, in the Fire-Nation it's almost _obscene._ "

"Yeah, well, I guess they didn't see it that way. It was always 'she's too delicate' or 'she could get hurt," shit like that."

"How… were you supposed to learn anything then?"

"I _wasn't,_ that was the whole fucking point!"

"Well… that's… asinine."

Toph snorted in agreement as she sat down next to him at the dinner table. "Yeah, I guess," she said unnecessarily.

Zuko judged that, as she had not left, she had something else that she wanted to say.

"Did you… want to talk about it?" Zuko asked slowly.

"No," Toph said forcefully. Perhaps _too_ forcefully.

 _Damnit I think she does,_ Zuko thought. _Where the ash is Katara when I need her?_

Although, he wasn't sure that Katara would be particularly useful in this situation. She had the tendency to try and be _nice_ to Toph.

In Zuko's, admittedly limited, experience Toph _hated_ "nice."

 _As a matter of fact, this is the one time of day that Toph could be sure that Katara would be busy. While she is cooking._

He eyed Toph surreptitiously for a moment, forgetting that _stealthy_ examination was pointless in the face of Toph's blindness.

 _I will have to guess, I suppose. She's obviously upset. Something to do with her parents?_

Toph now had her feet on the table, and was picking at her toes in a vigorous and irritated fashion.

"Is it common to pick one's toes at the dinner table in the Earth-Kingdom?" Zuko asked.

Toph only shrugged and made a rude noise with her lips.

 _So… she doesn't know. No more than I have any idea what a peasant does in their free time… I suppose that is the problem. Perhaps that's why she came to me instead of Katara? Because we are similar?_

There was also the fact that Katara generally wanted to fix things like this, people who were upset (and weren't him), with hugs and by making sweet dumplings.

Zuko loved her for that, but he wasn't sure that was the best practice with an angry Toph.

 _So, she doesn't know exactly how things work in her own kingdom, but that shouldn't be a problem unless…_

Unless she wasn't sure she could go home.

Sokka had told him that Toph's parents had actually hired bounty hunters to bring her back. Not exactly what would be considered the most normal of family dynamics but, again, not dissimilar to his _own_ sister's attempts to capture and/or drive him to Ba Sing Se.

 _She is uncertain… about the future._

"You can stay with me," Zuko said quietly, and Toph froze in mid toe pick. " _Everyone here_ is always welcome to reside in my home, wherever and whatever form that might take, and for as long as they would like."

Toph's face worked in surprise and embarrassment for a minute. She opened her mouth, most likely to tell Zuko to "shove" it.

"You… would actually be doing me a favor," Zuko said cutting her off. "I will need an advisor on Earth… things. And your presence would be very helpful in any negotiations or interrogations. I should think that-"

Toph's arm suddenly blurred as she reached out and punched him in the shoulder.

"Ow."

"Wellll, if you _insist,_ I suppose I could stick around for a bit to help you out. For…"

"As long as you would like."

"Yeah. Ok. I could do that. You know… for a little while."

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"This is infuriating," Zuko said tonelessly, trying and failing to haul himself out of the slumped posture he was stuck in, leaning against the fountain in the central courtyard.

Zuko didn't even know why he was bothering with this, it wasn't a skill that he needed to learn or to defend himself against. The only person in the world who knew how to do it was on _his_ side, and while chi blocking _was_ an interesting martial phenomenon, he doubted that Ty Lee was likely to use it against him.

 _Although, that's probably what Azula thought too._

"Yeah, I wish I could explain it better but… it's _reeeeally_ hard to explain _,"_ Ty Lee said amiably. She was balancing upside-down on her index fingers next to where Zuko lay slumped, her normal cheery grin in place. "You just have to sort of think… 'NO' _reeeeally_ loud, and then…" she reached out with one arm, remaining balanced on only a single finger, to poke Zuko in the nose. "…boop."

"…Boop?"

"Yep. Big NO, then boop. That's the best I can do, believe me."

"I do, it's just… ridiculous."

"Ridiculous, but _effective!_ " Ty Lee said, still balanced upside-down on a lone finger and now spinning slowly in place.

"I don't suppose you can undo it?" Zuko asked hopefully. "Perhaps a loud 'YES' and then-"

"Nope. Tried it. Doesn't work. It's a one-way street."

 _Damn._

"So, I am stuck like this?" Zuko asked aloud.

"For about a half an hour, yes. Sorry, I can't do any less than that."

"But you can do more?"

"Oh yeah! Just need a bigger NO and a harder boop. I knocked… ah…" she trailed off, looking as embarrassed as a person could be while sitting on her elbows, her feet dangling over her head, "… I knocked your girlfriend out for about three hours back in Ba Sing Se. Sorry."

"Did you apologize to _her_?"

"Oh yeah! Way back on the airship! She was actually really nice about it!"

"…She was?"

"Oh yeah! Well… she was really embarrassed at first because she walked in on me and Mai, just before we got to the _good_ part. But after I put my top back on, she was really understanding about the whole thing."

"Blood of the Sun, Ty. And after all those times Mai lectured _me_ about decorum."

"Yeah, well, we had to make up for lost time. Daring rescue, confession of love on a _gondola?_ Uhg, _so_ romantic! I really missed her… she can do this thing with her tongue that-"

"Ty! Stop! I do NOT need to hear this!"

"Oh, fine," Ty Lee said, her mock pout somewhat offset by the wiggle of her toes in their current residence on the top of her head. "You're such a fuddy-duddy."

"Did… did Mai talk to you?" Zuko asked after a moment of silence.

"Hmmm? What about?"

"Well, she was quite… uh… agitated…"

"Oh, you mean that whole thing where she thought you were going to abandon her? I told her that she was being silly, but no, we really don't talk about stuff like that. I have to guess."

"I see. Well… I am not an expert of course, but I am given to understand that… not talking about things… can lead to problems down the line."

"Mai isn't a sharer, Zuko. It makes her _reeeeally_ uncomfortable. So… I guess!"

"Yes… but-"

"I _am_ trying though, and she's gotten a lot better recently. But I can't go _too_ fast, you see? The _circus_ was too fast, and that just made a whole _mess_ of things. I mean, yes she would have been better off far _far_ away from her parents, but I shouldn't have sprung the whole thing on her without any warning. Mai needs her time to scheme; she makes the most _adorable_ scheming face. We actually made a game out of it! She'd scheme, and I try to guess what she was scheming about, and if I got it right I'd get a kiss."

"I see."

"We both got _reeeeally_ good at it."

"Again, I do _not_ need to hear about that."

"I _could_ offer you some pointers!"

"No."

"Explicit and _detailed_ pointers!"

"NO!"

"Oh boo, you're no fun at- Oh, hey Katara!"

 _Uh oh._

"What _precisely_ is going on here?" Katara asked from behind Zuko, her voice accompanied by the sound of an angrily tapping foot.

"We were training!" Ty Lee said genially, flipping herself around with to face the audibly angry Water-Tribe woman Zuko couldn't turn his head to look at.

"Training?" Katara made it sound like a curse.

"Yeah! Zuko said he wanted to try and _understand_ my chi blocking."

"Is that the reason he's crumpled on the ground like abandoned laundry?"

"Yep," Ty Lee said, nodding enthusiastically.

"And did he have a _reason_ not to tell me first?"

"Uhh."

"Could there possibly be a reason that the two of you would practice a potentially dangerous, little understood, martial arts technique without the presence of the _only_ medically trained person on the premises?"

"Oh… well… _I_ understand it."

"Yes, but in the future, I would appreciate it if you made sure to tell me first? I think my Zuko would try to _understand_ a wall by banging his head into it if you let him."

Zuko would have interjected at this point if he hadn't been torn between annoyance at the implication and utter mind-numbing happiness at being referred to as _her_ Zuko.

"Oh!" Ty Lee squeaked happily, flipping herself on to her feet. "This reminds me of this one time, when we were kids-"

"Ty!" Zuko barked. "She doesn't want to hear about-"

"Oh, I'm sure I _do_ ," Katara said repressively. "Come on, Ty Lee. Let's get some tea, shall we?"

And the two of them walked away leaving Zuko still slumped on the ground.

He exhaled sharply and brought his entire, not inconsiderable, willpower to bear on his predicament.

 _GET UP! You CAN get up!_

He only managed to make one arm flop uselessly at his side.

 _Well… shit._

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Aang was firebending.

This, in and of itself, was not unusual, Aang had firebending lessons twice a day, but Zuko had never seen him do so without any prompting.

Or in the middle of the night.

Without supervision.

Zuko observed him silently for a few minutes in mild surprise. The kata Aang were using were substantially different than the forms he saw in practice. Zuko had, only this afternoon, despaired over the fact that Aang _still_ bent fire like an airbender. Every burst was light, softer, than Zuko would have liked, and they often had an odd spinning motion to them that simply screamed airbending. But Zuko had already given up on the idea that Aang would be a classical firebender. The young man was _not_ a naturally aggressive person, and so Zuko had become more focused on simply making sure that Aang could _defend_ himself from fire, and from lightning.

Now however…

Flames pulsed from Aang's fists in a steady staccato rhythm. Sharp, fast, _hot._

 _Something is bothering him._

Much to Zuko's relief, Aang had not come to him to _talk_. They both knew he wasn't good at that. Instead Aang had come to bend it out, in the dead of night, when most were sound asleep.

Just like Zuko did.

In deference to that, Zuko simply fell into the other side of the courtyard and, after a moment of centering himself, he began to run through the same kata sequence, relaxing into the rhythm of it like an old and well-worn sandal. The two of them bent fire in silent synchronization for the better part of a half an hour.

 _He's… angry about something._ The thought floated up through the stillness of Zuko's mind like a little firework.

While it should have been obvious, the idea that it was _Aang,_ had made the idea more difficult to grasp. But the forms he used, the stances he took, the intensity of his flames all spoke to that fact. Zuko was entirely surprised by the sudden change in his student, and in an effort to learn more Zuko crooked his hand in half-invitation, half-challenge, when they finished a sequence that had them facing one another at opposite ends of the courtyard,

An invitation and challenge that Aang accepted without a word, springing forward towards Zuko with that same mysteriously present aggression.

He was _strong._

Zuko had never met someone that was a match for him in pure firebending strength and endurance. Most of his opponents, as was common in the modern firebending schools, were focused on speed and precision. Zuko's uncle was close to a match in strength, but had nowhere near Zuko's staying power, given his advancing age.

Aang had no such problem however.

Finally, after years of wishing, for one reason or another, that Aang would stand and fight, Zuko found that when he did so he was incredibly powerful. Aang's only real weakness was that he seemed to have no idea how to best channel the anger that he was currently feeling. His flames roared even wilder than usual for all their power, and Zuko found himself in the strange position of being the firebender with less power but more control as he defended himself.

Aang threw himself at Zuko again and again, and was sent flying backwards again and again, growing more and more frustrated with each volley and rejoinder. Zuko remained mystified to the source of his anger until Aang got back up once again and _snarled_ at him as he flew forward.

Zuko had seen _that_ look before.

Had seen that look under Ba Sing Se... as the Avatar had tried to ride Zuko and Azula down with a tsunami of earth…

…to save Katara.

 _Oh… SHIT._

Aang _knew._

He _had_ to know. Zuko and Katara weren't being particularly secretive about it. Admittedly, in deference to not making things awkward at the dinner table, they were not overly intimate with one another in front of other people outside of the province of heated looks and suggestive smiles.

But Aang was in love with Katara. And apparently, he was just now figuring out that _Zuko_ was too.

And so the Avatar launched himself at Zuko with all the fire of a bitter jealous sixteen-year-old with the power of a Great Kami, and for a moment it was all Zuko could do to defend himself.

The tone of the spar changed in an instant into an actual duel, fire roaring and booming in the courtyard. The Avatar had power and speed, but Zuko had experience. Knew the workings of jealous rage far better than the Avatar did.

Knew that he could _beat_ him.

But that wasn't what he really wanted anymore.

If Zuko had thought it would have done any good he would have yelled at Aang to control himself. He would have told him he was being a fool and a hypocrite. He would have screamed that the boy couldn't have _everything_ his way. Would have roared that Katara did not _love him that way._

But none of that would have done any good at this point and so Zuko did his best to explain his point of view… with _fire._

Fire roared and swirled and spat and roiled and licked at the two of them. Fire shattered and reformed and split and scorched the stones around them. There was nothing _but_ fire in either of their vision, nothing but red and orange and gold in every space that was not the two of them. The speed, the tension, the intensity of the fight continued to spiral upwards and outwards, further and further from either of their control.

In the end, it was the rage that decided it.

Aang had bitter jealousy, frustration, and an ill-formed, entirely new, sense of hatred.

But he was only a _visitor_ in the land the Zuko had lived in his entire life.

Zuko had rage. Deep-seated, bone-deep, rage. The kind of rage that can only be possessed by someone who had been betrayed by people that they had once put all their trust in.

The rage… of a madman.

 _Kill him._

Zuko didn't hear it. Not over the demands of concentration, not over the sweet singing hum of firebending, not over the raw cacophony of rage that had swamped his mind and paved a path for...

 _Kill Him._

He knew he could do it. The boy was weak. Stupid. A mere pretender. A fool.

 _KILL him._

Suddenly Aang misstepped, ducked left instead of right, feet the wrong way around, and the flames took him off his feet in an instant, knocking him backwards to the ground.

 _KILL HIM!_

Zuko leapt forward, fire in his hands, roar in his throat, red light in his eyes, and a sickening unholy grin on his face, as his fist came down on his now defenseless opponent and he…

 _Burn him, burn him, burn him, burn him, burn him, BURN H-_

…stopped. He stopped stock still. Every single muscle tensed. A statue made of scars and bone.

 _ **KILL! HIM!**_

The _thing_ had him. Had its claws in him. But at that last and most impossible second, Zuko had _it_ too. Invisible fingers around a throat made of shadows and bile.

 _ **KILL! KILL! KILL! KILL! KILL! KILL!**_

 _No._

Zuko stood there, stock still, feet planted, fist still in the air fighting to stop it from coming down on Aang, the boy that he had chased across the planet, the boy who was his pupil, his friend.

The boy who's only real crime was loving a woman that Zuko loved too.

And, really, Zuko couldn't fault him for that.

He wanted to tell Aang to run, to get help, to escape before he buckled under the enormous pressure of whatever the thing in his grip was. It had seemed so small before, so easy to throw into the back of his mind after Taiyoshima.

Now… it was enormous.

Now it was the finger of a Kami, pressing down on him with all the force of the world itself.

But suddenly Aang was on his feet, grey eyes intent, but no longer angry.

"Hold it there! Don't let it go!" Aang shouted.

 _What?_

Aang advanced on him, his grey eyes flickering blue-white, like a dying campfire in a high wind, like summer lightning, and as slowly as one glacier crashes into another he put his left thumb on Zuko's breast bone and his right on Zuko's forehead.

There was the sensation of Zuko's bones shaking like a ringing gong…

And then the whole world went white.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Zuko's vision cleared after the lifetime that was a single heartbeat to find Aang sobbing into his chest. Deep, hacking, guilt-ridden sobs of remorse.

Really _messy_ crying.

Zuko felt as though he should be annoyed by this.

And he _was…_ but it felt… odd.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry…" Aang was chanting it through his tears like it was one of his mantra.

"What… what was that?" Zuko said blankly.

"I don't _know,_ " Aang said, sounding panicked through the tears. He released Zuko and began to hop from foot to foot and dry-washing his hands in agitation. "I really don't! It was… there was something _there…_ inside you… and I _recognized it_ somehow. I had to…" he stopped and looked back to Zuko with a further wince and a look of horror. "Uh… don't… don't freak out, but um… can you… try and do palm of flame for me?"

"Palm of Flame?" Zuko definitely _knew_ he should be annoyed by being asked to perform beginner's moves, and he was, but it still felt… distant. Far away.

But in spite of that, Zuko put out his right hand and tried to do palm of flame.

There was supposed to be only the tiniest gap of time between the thinking and the doing in this, one of the first and most basic moves in firebending. One was meant to breathe, gesture, and flame was meant to appear in one's hand.

And this time…

…was absolutely no different.

Red flames sprang into Zuko's hand like always, though the sensation was… odd.

 _Like something is missing._

Aang exhaled in a long relieved puff of air, worry falling away from him like water off a turtle-duck's back. "Oh thank the Winds. I thought maybe you had lost your bending."

"…I'm sorry?" Zuko said, the flame in his palm extinguishing.

"Yeah. That… whatever that was… it was wrapped around your chi pretty badly. I _had_ to get it out, but as I was doing it…" Aang grinned sheepishly and shrugged as though he had been caught falling asleep while he was supposed to be meditating.

"Get… get it _out_?" Zuko whispered.

"Yeah. It was wedged in there pretty deep. Some sort of spirit. Big one too. Where did you-"

Zuko turned away from him and thrust his fist forward, bending a gout of flame. It seemed no less powerful than before, no less remarkable than the first time he learned of the righteous anger. Yet as the fire died away, so did the anger, and the strange sense of calm returned to him.

"Huh," Zuko said, staring at his fist as though it were doing a particularly interesting trick.

"Look, Zuko… I'm…" Aang trailed off rubbing at his still slightly watery eyes. "Spirits, this is so messed up."

"You are in love with Katara," Zuko said flatly. Where before the idea would have forced him to restrain a wave of jealousy and anger, now there was silence. He could still feel the emotions there, simmering, but no longer boiling over.

"I… well… yeah…" Aang rubbed at his head in apparent misery. "I'm not supposed to be though. I'm really trying not to be… but then I saw the two of you in the kitchen and I just…" He shrugged again in helplessness. "I'm sorry."

"It is alright. I cannot fault you for your feelings. Not without being a hypocrite."

"But I'm supposed to let go. Let go of everything. And I… I can't."

"Then don't," Zuko said quietly.

"…what?"

"We have talked about this, Aang. I do not think that you _caring_ is a bad thing."

"But the Air-Nomads said-"

"The Air-Nomads… are dead."

Aang's eyes narrowed slightly in anger before he sagged in place and sat down, his back resting on the base of the now slightly scorched fountain.

"You are the only Air-Nomad anymore, Aang," Zuko continued. " _You_ are the Lord Togashi. _You_ must make up your own mind."

"It's not that simple. I'm the Avatar, I'm supposed to save the world!"

"True," Zuko said as he sat down by Aang on the lip of the fountain, "but first you are a samurai. And a samurai has only one judge of his honor, and that is himself. The decisions you make and how those decisions are carried out are a reflection of who you _truly_ are."

"But… what if I can't do it? What if I abandon the _way_ and the whole _world_ pays the price as a result."

"I think that, as long as you try your best, as long as you commit fully, one way or the other… you will have lived with honor. Neither I, nor anyone else, can ask any more of you than that."

Aang sighed again and leaned his head on his knees. "This is so messed up."

"That is life. Messed up." Zuko said, nodding.

"Maybe we can talk about your problems now? It's probably less complicated."

Zuko shrugged. "My great-grandfather, Fire-Lord Sozin, betrayed and killed my _other_ great-grandfather, Avatar Roku, and in so doing dishonored my entire line as well as cursing us. My sisters and I are the crux of that conflict."

"Oh. Well. That seems pretty- WHAT?!"

"Yes," Zuko said with a nod. "I had a similar reaction."

"Is that why you were…"

"Yes. I think so. And… thank you, Aang. I…" Zuko put his hand on the boy's shoulder. "I have been fighting with that thing since… for years. Thank you."

"Glad I could help," Aang said smiling at him.

They sat for a moment in silence.

"So…" Aang said slyly, "does that make _me_ your-"

"No. No, it does not."

"It certainly seems like-"

"That is _not_ how reincarnation works."

"Are you sure? Honored grandfather _does_ have a nice ring to it. It seems like-"

"WHAT IN YUE'S NAME DO YOU TWO THINK YOU ARE DOING!?"

 _Uh oh._

"Uh, Katara!" Aang said flying to his feet guiltily. "We were- uh- training?"

Katara, clad in her sleeping robe, her hair in disarray, stomped out of the shadows towards the two of them. She bent a small splash of water out of the fountain and trailed it along the ground beside her. She lifted the globule, now a dark grey with all the firebending char, into her vision and theirs.

"Training?" she said, practically snarling with skepticism.

"Really _intense_ training," Aang said, smiling nervously.

"We are both fine, Katara," Zuko said, rising to his feet and addressing what he thought was her real concern. "I am sorry if we woke you."

"You didn't. You woke _Toph_ , who then woke me up so I could come down here and stop you two from killing each other over…" she cut off, eyes glancing between the two of them.

"We are _both fine_ ," Zuko repeated. "We have had a talk. Everything is fine."

"Good," Katara sniffed, then turned her semi-wrathful gaze on Aang. "Aang. Bed. Now."

"Aww, come on, Katara, I'm not really tired."

"Is morning firebending training canceled?" Katara asked, turning to face Zuko.

"Certainly not," Zuko said with a nod.

Aang's mouth dropped open in horror. "Oh come ON! We just… I mean… seriously?"

"Your emotions are running hot, we will need to work on that," Zuko said firmly. "We will _also_ work on the _correct_ way to turn in the middle of the 'Burning Autumn Leaves' kata."

"Right. _Bed_ ," Katara said, pointing back the way she had come from. "Toph also seemed to think you would need rest to _survive_ her training tomorrow."

Aang gulped somewhat nervously at that and sped off to his room on a ball of wind.

After he had gone, Katara cocked her head to the side in a questioning, slightly worried, face.

"Are you sure you're ok? Toph… actually sounded worried."

"We are both fine," Zuko said with a grin and a tone of wonder. "Better than fine really." He dipped down to kiss her suddenly and quite thoroughly.

"… you know, you're making this _slow_ thing really difficult," Katara said somewhat breathily after they separated.

"I have never preferred doing things the easy way," Zuko said, smile intensifying. "You know. I think I've changed my mind."

"About?"

"Coming to Ember Island," Zuko said. "I'm starting to think that this was _exactly_ the right place to be."

* * *

 **A/N:** **And he squeaks it in under the wire! The crowd goes WILD! Hello hello and good morning and welcome back to your now bi-monthly work of fiction, which some consider to be… pretty not terrible. If you're one of those who feels that way, be sure to drop me a line and tell me about it! If you disagree… be sure to drop me a line and tell me about it! Seriously, I love the feedback, and most of you already know that, but this is your reminder.**

 **And now, on with the rambly…**

 **.**

 **META-BITS**

 **.**

 **Combustion Man!: There he is! The Yiga (totally a Zelda reference) clansman with the facial tattoo! (/author high-fives himself as nobody else actually cared)**

 **.**

 **Monsoons and Ember Island: I admit that I chased my tail again on this for a while, the Last Dragon version of the Gaang really **_**doesn't**_ **have the same concerns as Canon!Gaang. Why do they need to hide? So, I had to give them a reason. Ok, maybe** _ **had**_ **is too strong a word. I** _ **wanted**_ **them on Ember Island, they DO need to take a break before they blow a gasket.**

 **Weather is a major factor in any military force's mobility. Seriously, you have no idea how much trouble you have doing maneuvers in bad, muddy, terrain. A large body force like Zuko is currently with is, as is always the case with groups, only as fast as its slowest element. A lone (possibly explosion bending assassin) is** _ **far**_ **more mobile. Speed, or in this instance mobility, kills. Zuko's army is essentially pinned in place, and that makes it vulnerable. So, the leadership, the heart of the army, needs to go and keep themselves safe somewhere. Not only is it safer for them, it's safer for the army. No more combustion men(or women) making trouble if the target isn't there!**

 **So, the Gaang goes to Hawaii and there are emotions and shenanigans… AGAIN!**

 **Love me some shenanigans.**

 **.**

 **Vignettes: I usually like to tell a story that flows from one scene to another, but this chapter is almost more of a homage to "The Tales of Ba Sing Se" back in season 2. A series of loosely connected scenes where in my grumpy protagonist interacts with his accomplices, friends, and surrogate family.**

 **Hope you like it, regardless.**

 **.**

 **Sokka and his shovel: Sokka loves his sister, Sokka likes Zuko, but that does not mean that Sokka isn't going to have the brotherly version of the shovel talk with Zuko. He has concerns, and honestly what good big brother wouldn't?**

 **.**

 **Katara and her Dinners: Yes, dinners equal family. Both Katara, and Zuko's grandma, know that, its why Katara point blank refused to include Zuko in the days before the southern raiders.**

 **Zuko occupies an interesting middle ground here. He is a** _ **royal**_ **which means that he was raised at the extreme end of the manners and propriety bell curve. Then he** _ **grew up**_ **in exile, as a common soldier and then ronin, at the OTHER end of the spectrum. He is alright with both, but for him to see them mashed together like this can be rather jarring. Like having a kegger in your fussy grandma's house.**

 **.**

" **Slow?": Yeah, Katara's going to try to keep things mature and dignified (now defined as: fancy+slow) but she's still 19 and with access to a boyfriend who is built like a brick house. A brick house who, while willing to respect her desires, is **_**certainly**_ **not going to tell her to stop when she kicks down his door for a nooner.**

 **Or two.**

 **.**

 **Mai and her worries: Mai is an overthinker. She has been trained for paranoia and to always consider the worst possible outcome. She is **_**not**_ **practiced at trust. Before, she had convinced herself that her friendship with Zuko was transactional. A secret kept for a returned service. She is** _ **getting**_ **to a place where she can have a normal trusting relationship but that doesn't mean she isn't going to have a small freak out when she believes Zuko is going to abandon her. If she loses her utility, or her nominal place as Zuko's bride/bodyguard, a part of her is concerned that she will no longer have safety.**

 **Zuko, of course, is not about that sort of thing.**

 **So he has to reassure her and make sure that she sees her value to him outside of a potential Fire-Lady. So now she's going to be his Secretary of State thus putting her back in her comfort zone, that of someone who has value in the service that they provide. She also is about 84% of the way to completely understanding that Zuko takes loyalty to his friends very seriously.**

 **So, that's nice.**

 **.**

 **Toph and the Ice Cream: Toph is also having a bit of crisis in consideration of the post-war situation.**

 **What IS she going to do?**

 **I think that there is** _ **something**_ **about Ember Island, something that lends itself toward introspection and consideration of deeper worries. Maybe a spirit. Probably why Ozai doesn't come here.**

 **Toph, much like Zuko, has a serious problem with showing weakness in front of others. She has been called "weak" her whole life, and she doesn't want anyone to think that her parents were right about that.**

 **So Zuko makes an educated, and correct, guess.**

 **So now Toph MFing Beifong has a permanent and standing invitation to live in the Palace of Otosan Uchi.**

 **Wonder if THAT is going to bite Zuko in the ass?**

 **.**

 **Ty Lee and the chi: I see chi blocking as sort of the non-bender's bending. Everyone's got chi, and I think that instead of interacting with elements a non-bender's chi just interacts with other chi.**

 **Other than that, this is just Zuko goofing around with an old friend and giving Ty Lee a chance to tell you(the reader) about stuff.**

 **.**

 **Suki and the Duke: You will have noticed that these two didn't get a lot of screen time. My bad. Seriously, I wish I had more inspiration and more free time to give these two the attention they deserve. They are there, they are important, but I the author have failed you in figuring out exactly what those moments are.**

 **The Duke is training with Zuko and Aang, he is a little hero-worship-y of Zuko and thus is still stoic and mostly non-verbal.**

 **Suki, given that Zuko is more focused on Aang's training, is the primary trainer in the "team building exercises" that I referenced. She is kicking much ass and, I think, bonding with Mai and Ty Lee a bit.**

 **A new dangerous ladies squad? Maybe.**

 **.**

 **Aang and the Jealousy: Aang is not perfect. Nobody is. He **_**knows**_ **what he's supposed to do, he knows what everyone** _ **wants**_ **him to do, but he is conflicted. Because OF COURSE HE IS!**

 **This is a great conflict, and I wish, to all the gods, that the show had done it justice.**

 **That said, for Aang, a lot of his conflict can be placed (not entirely unjustly) at the feet of Zuko. Zuko is a hard-ass when it comes to training, Zuko has absolutely NO interest in making things easy for Aang with regards to his beliefs, Zuko has the affection of the girl Aang is in love with.**

 **Also if you're sensing a little Oedipus complex-ery (slaying the father to possess the mother) then your sensing equipment is tuned correctly.**

 **As such, and again I wonder if there isn't some spirit work and play here on Ember Island, Aang is going to have a moment of falling to the dark side, and REALLY trying to kill Zuko.**

 **I regret nothing.**

 **.**

 **Zuko and the** _ **Thing:**_ **Yep. It's gone. Now Zuko, who has essentially been anger-control weight-training his whole adult life, has now been freed. His anger is still present, but is no longer being spiritually shoved under his nose 24-7.**

 **Also, I seed, and quite early, Aang's initial and somewhat fumbly attempt at spirit bending.**

 **.**

 **Well, that's it! Any further questions/comments/gripes/praise should be directed to the comment/review box.**

 **And seriously, thank you all so much.**

 **.**

 **.**

 **NEXT TIME on a very special "Avatar: The Last Dragon"...**

 **Zuko learns about democracy.**

 **TUNE IN. New Zuko time, Same Zuko channel!**

 **Original post date: 24 March 2019**


	16. The Tragedy of the Prince of Fire

**A/N: The Following is rated K; for Kabuki**

 **It contains dialog, where appropriate, from S3E17 "The Ember Island Players"**

 **Reader discretion is advised.**

* * *

Chapter 16 "The Tragedy of the Prince of Fire."

* * *

 **High Summer, Year 12 in the reign of Fire-Lord Ozai**

"This is a terrible idea," Zuko grumbled.

But whether Zuko believed it was a terrible idea or not was currently irrelevant. It had already been _decided_ , was already in _progress_ in fact. Zuko felt as though somewhere in the last day he should have, at some point, been able to put his foot down.

He had certainly _tried_ , but found himself continually thwarted by a beautiful smile below grey-blue eyes.

Katara had given him, and the whole group at large, a rather pointed and rousing speech on something called "democracy" which was the process by which Unicorn Chieftains were elected. They apparently thought that, in some cases, everyone should be allowed to have a say.

And so, in the aftermath of one of Katara's remarkably simple, yet delicious dinners, Zuko had found himself overwhelmingly "outvoted."

Never mind that the very idea flew in the face of every facet of Fire-Nation political theory.

Only Mai had initially joined Zuko in "voting" against this plan; this in spite of Ty Lee's fervent batting of eyelashes. Irritatingly she had only dissented because she felt it was not _safe_ for Zuko to leave the Winter Palace, not because she too agreed that the entire idea was asinine. Unfortunately, after Sokka (the terrible idea's origin) had explained how easily Zuko had hidden his identity at the Boiling Rock, she had simply bowed and retracted her objections, much to Zuko's consternation.

Which was why Zuko now found himself, an extremely irritated scowl concealed behind long hair and an unseasonably warm hooded cloak, waiting in line for admittance to the sundown showing of the Ember Island Players' latest _disaster_ of a performance.

Zuko's mother, surreptitiously aided and abetted by Azula, had succeeded in dragging Zuko, his father, and whatever members of the Akodo family they could get their hands on, to see this particular kabuki troupe's performance of "Love Amongst the Embers" _every single year_ they came to the island _and_ whenever they made their way to the capital, resulting in exposing the royal family to what was possibly the _worst_ acted rendition of the _most_ melodramatic piece of fiction in the ten-thousand-years of Fire-Nation history.

Zuko had done his level best to try and explain just how _catastrophically_ bad the players were, but found he lacked the vocabulary to communicate it completely. How _did_ one explain just how bad the already terrible troupe could make something that was already as sappy and over-wrought as "Love Amongst the Embers?" Unfortunately, Zuko found that, not only did he lack the correct vocabulary, but that he had fatally misstepped by mentioning _that_ particular book. It seemed that Katara had at some point actually _read_ the sappy epic…

And actually _enjoyed_ it.

Not even the fact that it was also Azula's favorite could sway her at that point.

From there she had flat out insisted that they would _all_ go to see the current production. No matter that they were supposed to be training Aang, no matter that it _wasn't_ "Love Amongst the Embers," no matter that it was sure to be, not only horribly acted, but a piece of loyalist propaganda.

Katara was fiercely determined, a state of being which made Zuko's mouth go dry and any and all objections disappear in the saccharine mush that was his brain, and so the nine of them now stood in a loud rambunctious huddle in the queue, theater-bound to engage in some of Sokka's brand of "wacky time-wasting nonsense."

They were all off to see "The _Tragedy_ of the Prince of Fire."

Zuko just hoped he would be allowed to nod off as his father and grandfather always seemed to do.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"Zuko… what am I looking at?"

"That… would appear to be you… and Sokka… in a canoe."

Zuko's very worst fears had been confirmed within moments of sitting down on his cushion in the elevated, out of the way, box that Ty Lee and Suki had acquired for this theatrical misadventure. Mai had silently handed him a program and pointed out the credit under the playwright's.

" _Executive Producer: Kasai Aoi."_

Better known as Akodo Azula.

Zuko was suddenly hopeful that _this_ would change her mind and that maybe they could escape before the awfulness began, but Mai had instead explained that their attendance was now even _more_ important. Apparently, among the Scorpion, knowledge of the enemy's mindset, their fiction, their culture, their fondest aspirations, was seen as key to understanding them and thus ensuring their defeat. As such, she was now even more convinced that there was something to be gleaned from this, an obvious piece of propaganda, co-written by their mutual enemy.

The fact the they had both known Azula for most of their _lives_ was somehow not deemed a sufficient counter-argument.

Unsurprisingly, this new insight into Scorpion techniques did not make Zuko feel any better and he continued to scowl as the two actors, dressed in Unicorn purple and white, and wearing the typical over-exaggerated face-paint of kabuki actors, "rowed" their canoe up the entrance walkway, through the middle of the audience on the ground floor, and up into the main stage. As they "rowed," their canoe dragged along by black-clad stage-hands, the hayashi band, hidden by their curtain along the side of the theater, played the play's opening nagauta, a long slow song that seemed to be about how very very _cold_ it was.

Cold… at the South Pole.

 _Yes, it's cold you MORONS! I can see the snow. Why are you singing about-_

"I can see that it's me and Sokka," Katara said, her voice hushed but irritable as it cut through Zuko's equally annoyed thoughts. "What I want to know is why _we_ are in a fictional play about _you._ "

They certainly had not been present in "The _Adventures_ of the Prince of Fire" but, as Zuko opened his mouth to explain that he had no idea, he was interrupted by the actors who, having finally reached the main stage, began to declaim rather loudly.

"Oh, Kasok, my brother! Long have we travelled in this, the frozen lands of our birth, finding only ice and snow! Truly our lives are bereft of meaning and honor!" the actress who was supposed to be Katara said, rising gracefully to her feet in the prop canoe.

"And why _precisely,_ if it's so COLD, is my kimono WIDE open?" Katara said, her voice hard with growing fury.

Zuko was also rather mystified by that. Normally, from what he remembered anyway, kabuki actors were always dressed in several, exceedingly formal, layered outfits. _This_ actress, however, was dressed in a typical well-embroidered kimono, but had it somewhat open at the chest, showing a rather impressive amount of cleavage.

"Gack!" Kasok, the stage-version of Sokka, said, contorting his warpainted pace in an overexaggerated posture of pain. "Truly, my _stomach_ is bereft of foodstuffs! Surely I shall perish!"

"Well at least they got Sokka right," Toph said in amusement as most of the audience laughed.

Zuko looked down at the program that Mai had given him as though it might somehow explain all the questions that he had so recently been asked.

"' _The Tragedy of the Prince of Fire' is the latest work from acclaimed playwright Tim Pu'on and Executive Producer Kasai Aoi. Written in the NEW style, it features the further adventures of Prince Kozu involving barbarians, pirates, prisoners of war and a surprisingly persistent merchant of cabbage. Join us for the updated and FINAL chapter of the Nationally beloved 'Adventures of the Prince of Fire," as Prince Kozu battles Avatar Yang Chen and the forces of barbarism and dishonor."_

… _Oh crap._

"New style?" Zuko said, trying to focus on the bit that was only confusing, not fatally horrifying.

"I assume Azula wanted to make changes to typical kabuki stylings," Mai said from the row behind him. "So, she did. Tradition and formula be damned."

"Azula?" Katara asked, turning slightly in her seat, her eyes wide.

"Kasai Aoi," Zuko growled.

"Your _sister_ wrote 'The Adventures of the Prince of Fire?'"

"I thought I told you that?"

"… oh, this was a _really_ bad idea," Katara said after a small horrified pause.

"I _know_ I told you that."

In the meantime, the stage version of Sokka and his sister, who it seemed was named Arakata, had begun performing a rather comedic song and dance about hunting rhino-whales. Despite their immense size, Kasok kept missing them with his spears while Arakata wept in frustration. An insulting metaphor for perpetual incompetence and helplessness.

"What the frost?" Katara hissed, turning back to the stage as Toph laughed along with the rest of the audience. "I don't cry like that."

"You _sometimes_ cry like that," Toph said still enjoying herself.

Once the song was over, the black clad stagehands dragged a large white prop on stage, and Arakata and her brother both fell over from the shock of seeing an iceberg.

An iceberg… at the South Pole.

 _Ash and bone, I hate kabuki,_ Zuko thought as he ground his teeth.

"Look, my brother with no skills with a spear! An iceberg!" Arakata cried, her eyes still inexplicably full of tears.

"Perhaps I can hit _this_!" Kasok shouted. He hoisted his prop-spear dramatically and then froze in place, his eyes wide and slightly crossed, for a good thirty seconds as the sounds of the woodblock began to sound from the hayashi band.

"Why is it taking me so long to aim?" Sokka asked the world at large.

"Actually, this is kind of surprising," Ty Lee said cheerfully, albeit quietly. "This is the actor's mie. They'll freeze for a moment, in a pose that is meant to signify the core of their character, as well as express a moment of importance and tension. For Azula to give you a warrior's mie… its actually quite flattering."

"Oh. Well. That's alright then," Sokka said sitting up straight as Suki smirked at him fondly.

The mie ended as the woodblock faded away and Kasok launched his spear at the iceberg-prop, splitting it in two. As it did, Kasok, who seemed surprised to have actually hit it, overbalanced, and fell upstage out of the canoe.

Sokka slapped his palm into his forehead as Suki giggled and Toph laughed outright with the rest of the audience.

"Oh, well, that's just wrong," Katara said, crossing her arms over her chest rather grumpily as Sokka continued to sputter indignantly. " _I_ was the one who broke Aang out of the ice."

Then, as the prop continued to open, there was a musical flourish on the flute, and a puff of non-firebending smoke as a svelte figure in yellow and orange, a wire attached to the back of their costume, burst from behind the iceberg and "flew" once around the entire theater.

"HIIIIIII!" Yang Chen trilled, as she soared around the theater in a play show of airbending.

Aang's mouth fell open in a mix of confusion and horror.

"Why… why am I a _girl_?"

"Because you're Yang Chen," Ty Lee said kindly.

"Then… why am I… is she… wearing _monk's_ robes?" Aang said, still seeming slightly horror-stricken.

Ty Lee could only shrug at that.

"Helllllooooo, my friends!" Yang Chen said cheerily.

"And who might you be, strange one?" Arakata asked, recoiling from the girl who was now perched on the edge of the canoe.

"I'm the Avatar, silly! I'm here to spread joy and fun… then run away at the smallest hint of danger."

Kasok chose this moment to poke his war-painted face over the edge of the canoe, causing Yang Chen to squeak in horror and try to hide behind Arakata.

"I don't do that!" Aang said his voice mostly lost in the audience, and Toph's, laughter.

"Oh, spirits, this is the BEST thing I've never seen!" Toph said through laughter-induced tears.

"Can you even tell what's happening?" Katara said, slightly annoyed with the girl on her other side.

"Oh yeah. Fire-Nation built this fucker out of basalt," Toph said, still giggling as she wiggled her toes on the floor.

Meanwhile, Yang Chen had been coaxed out from behind Arakata, and had made a joke involving meaty dumplings which had caused Kasok to fall out of the boat again, to universal amusement. Once he had clambered back in, the three of them paddled away as the curtain fell to the loud clacking of the woodblock.

"What about Appa?" Aang asked, recovering from his surprise and mild horror.

The assembled group of theater goers could only shrug as the stagehands bustled about behind the curtain.

Within moments the woodblock sounded again and the curtain fell away revealing the profile of the forward portion of a Fire-Nation warship jutting from stage right.

 _Oh ash, here we go._

The hayashi band began to perform a loud dirge-like song that contained snippets of the Fire-Nation anthem in the background, played in a minor key.

 _Spirits? Is it too much to ask that… maybe you just make the stage break… or something? Just stop the play? Honestly, I just-_

But, as usual, the spirits were ignoring Zuko's requests and Prince Kozu, clad all in black prop-armor and with a red katana in his belt, entered from offstage, where the prop-ship's aft would be.

 _Well… shit._

The actor's face-paint showed a scowl so fierce that it made Kasok's look like a mild pout. Even worse was the enormous painted scar in bright red and black… on the _right_ side of his face.

"Is… is your scar on the wrong side?" Sokka asked through a mouth full of fireflakes.

The reason for this incongruity, like many other questions that had been asked, could not be answered.

A spotlight, shining in a blue hue, swung to the stage's left wing revealing an actress in red kimono who, backed up by what was quickly becoming apparent was Kozu's _theme music_ , began to dramatically declaim the prior tales of Prince Kozu. Beginning with his mysterious banishment and then spending a lot of the time talking about…

"Ping? Who's Ping?" Sokka asked in confusion.

Zuko could practically feel the entire group stare at him as the narrator continued to describe the anguish and heartbreak of losing his first and most trusted retainer. Anger, much less in the forefront of his mind since his liberation at Aang's hands, surged forward along with the normal accompanying guilt.

 _Damnit,_ Zuko thought, clenching his fists in fury.

He was just at the brink of springing to his feet and withdrawing from the theater when he suddenly felt a coolness on his nearly smoking fist. He blinked away the redness creeping into his vision to find Katara, no longer angry, but looking tremendously sad. He managed to cool and unclench his fist, and Katara laced her fingers in between his.

"You're _here_ , with _me_ , alright? Let's… let's try to remember this is just a play. Nothing dangerous, nothing to be angry about. Just a play."

Zuko only nodded, giving her hand a squeeze as he turned back to the stage.

The narrator had continued in the interim, describing Prince Kozu's acts of heroism and his string of victories, but reminding the audience that it brought him no closer to Yang Chen _or_ to his redemption.

There was a brief moment of pure melodrama as the music swelled behind Prince Kozu, standing at the front of the ship, arms behind his back, his chin slightly lifted as though looking outward, to his _destiny_.

The moment cut off abruptly as a rotund figure in red and gold fell from the rafters, his landing concealed by the sides of the prop-ship, but still producing a loud THUMP of impact.

"Good morning, uncle," Kozu growled, not turning around.

The practically spherical actor rose from where he had landed as the audience chuckled and dusted himself off ostentatiously.

"I _meant_ to do that," the actor version of Iroh said beaming stupidly.

"…Of course, Uncle."

"After all, it is fitting, is it not? To honor the season, a graceful thing like myself should _leaf_ the heights to descend to the forest floor."

Zuko rolled his eye as the audience laughed at the terrible pun.

"Asinine," Zuko growled and, almost at the same moment, Kozu did so as well, managing to match Zuko's pitch and tone almost exactly.

Katara giggled slightly as Zuko began to sputter indignantly, then began to scoot her cushion closer so she could lean her head on his shoulder. Mai began to cough in disgruntlement at the breach of propriety, but was quietly silenced herself as Ty Lee moved to follow suit at her side.

The stage version of Iroh, who the program listed as Colonel Roh-hi, shivered ostentatiously as the stagehands began to drag small iceberg props past the ship, contorting his genially painted face into abject misery.

"Why, oh, why, my Prince? Why have you dragged this fragile leaf so far into the frigid south? For what reason could we possibly have to venture so far from the warm and lovely lands of our birth?"

Finally, Kozu turned from his posture of vigilance and fixed his uncle, and the audience, with another fierce scowl.

"Honor," he said simply, and then the curtain dropped amid the sound of the woodblock and a scattering of applause.

 _Seriously? That's it? "Honor?" That's all I say? What the ash, Azula?_

"Ridiculous," was all Zuko said aloud.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

The bulk of the first act passed in one irritating parade of nonsense after another.

Yang Chen and her group, now referred to as "the Gyang," travelled to the Southern Air Temple and discovered a talking lemur-phoenix which Yang Chen named Moppa. How they had gotten there and how Prince Kozu had begun following them was not explained, but merely expounded upon once again by the narrating actress in the wings.

The Battle of Kyoshi was performed in the traditional kabuki method; a highly stylistic dance off between Fire-Nation spearmen and Kyoshi tessen wielders. Why there should be an order of Kyoshi in the supposed era of Yang Chen, her _predecessor,_ was, like many other things in the production, unexplained. Kozu pursued a terrified and constantly fleeing Yang Chen through the dancers while both Aang and Zuko scowled at their stage-counterparts' cowardice and idiocy. The audience shouted encouragement and clapped along with the beat of the drums of the battle song as was customary in kabuki. They also laughed uproariously when Kasok emerged on stage, a joint of meat in one hand, a fan in the other, as he comically fumbled his way through the dance while wearing a matching set of green women's kimono-armor but his face paint unchanged.

Katara, who had remained calm and soothing since Kozu's first entrance, was herself driven to near teeth-gnashing fury as her stage-counterpart seduced the warden of a prison rig, stealing the keys to the cells after he fell asleep and liberating the earthbenders. She and one of the earthbenders, a man name Iwato (who Zuko assumed was supposed to be Haru) shared a passionate, if highly inappropriate, kiss before he cleared a path through the mountains for them.

"I KNEW you had a secret thing with Haru," Toph cackled.

"More like _Sokka_ had a secret thing with Haru," Katara grumbled, causing Sokka to begin choking on his third box of fireflakes.

Roh-hi provided more comic relief in a scene that actually bore a passing resemblance to reality. He was captured by earthbenders after falling asleep in a hot-spring. Kozu saved him easily, alone and unaided, and without uttering more than four words.

Two of which were "Honor."

The narrator reappeared then to point out that Kozu was behaving unusually in this. Sacrificing his duty for simple familial love in defiance of his continuing dishonor and exile. Katara's hand, still entwined in his, gripped fiercely as she smiled at him.

A smile which transformed into another snarl in a later scene. wherein Kozu had tied Arakata to a tree in the middle of the woods as bait for Yang Chen.

"I must admit, Prince Kozu, I find you _very_ attractive," Arakata crooned, batting her eyes overtop of a still improperly arranged kimono.

"Ridiculous," Kozu growled turning away from her.

"Surely you must be so… lonely?" Arakata said, writhing somewhat provocatively in her rope bindings. "Your bedchamber must be so _cold_ at night."

There was a long and dramatic pause as Kozu turned back to her, seeming contemplative. Arakata's somewhat sultry smile grew… until Kozu actually spoke.

"I am the Prince of _Fire._ It is _honor_ that keeps me warm."

This was the longest series of words he had yet strung together and when he walked away from Arakata, setting a guard to watch her in his place, Zuko assumed it was because the effort had exhausted him. Arakata wasted no time in turning her "charms" on this guard, who proved far more susceptible to them, and after she had convinced him to set her free, she quickly knocked him unconscious with a knee to the groin.

She scowled off stage the way Kozu had gone for a moment before advancing downstage to monologue.

"Never before have my charms failed me. Ever have they been my greatest power. That this banished prince thinks he is immune vexes me greatly, but…" she paused, a sly smile appearing at her face. "Methinks that yon Prince is not so strong of heart as he would have us believe. I will make him mine, and then no power under this Sun will stand before me." Then she began to laugh behind her hand, in the loud traditional style of an evil seductress as the woodblock rose once again, freezing her in her mie and casting her as the ultimate villain of the piece. She remained frozen in that evil laughing posture as the curtain descended once again and Zuko restrained Katara before she could start shouting threats and imprecations down at the stage even as Toph cackled.

"It is just a _play._ A really _bad_ one. Just be calm," Zuko muttered in an unpracticed, but successful attempt at soothing.

Katara calmed somewhat, but neither her, nor Zuko's, mood was improved upon when, in a later scene, her stage doppelganger seduced a gangly man with hook-swords named "Obsidian." Arakata convinced him to flood a nearby town as a way of proving his affections but, after it was accomplished, admitted to the audience that she only did it as practice for enthralling the heart of Kozu.

"And where the frost are Aang and I supposed to be during all of this?" Sokka asked, gesticulating towards the stage.

"Running away and stuffing your face most likely," Toph said in amusement.

The curtain rose again, for once answering a question by revealing Yang Chen bound in chain and now guarded by a still furiously scowling Kozu.

"Finally. Victory," Kozu said flatly as the hayashi played his theme music.

"AHHHH! These chains are making it impossible to run away!" Yang Chen bleated in poorly acted terror. "Spirits save me!"

"Wait… how is this going to work?" Aang asked, scratching at the hat that he was wearing to cover his arrow. "Are you going to save me… from _yourself_?"

"I never told anyone that I was the Grey Ghost," Zuko said quietly. "Also, given the circumstances, it is unsurprising that Zhao would be removed from the production."

"Good," Sokka said icily.

As predicted an actor clad in black with a plain white mask appeared with a loud BANG of smoke. In defiance of reality he then began to boast rather loudly that he was the "Grey Ghost" and he had come to free the Avatar to claim his great "reward."

After a brief fight scene this reward was revealed to be another highly inappropriate kiss from Arakata, which the spirit claimed with great gusto after dropping Yang Chen at her feet.

"Well… that's just silly," Katara said with an exasperated shake of her head. "How am I meant to have seduced a _spirit?_ "

"I have never been under the impression that kabuki was supposed to make sense," Zuko said irritably.

"Hey, at least you're being portrayed as being _good_ at something," Sokka grumbled.

"Hey, at least you're being portrayed at _all,_ " Suki said in a brief stab at humor.

From there the play jumped directly to the Siege of the North, once again replacing Zhao with Kozu as the commander of the fleet. The narrator appeared again to describe, in great and slightly off-putting detail, the many casualties inflicted on the Crane and the approaching inevitable Fire-Nation victory.

"Soon," Kozu said, and once again the curtain dropped.

"Honestly, I think I've said no more than twenty words this whole time," Zuko said sighing in exasperation.

"Well, to be fair, unless you're lecturing or making speeches, you really don't talk that much," Ty Lee said sounding somewhat defensive. "Thinking up dialog is _reeeeally_ hard."

All eyes turned to her.

"Ty… did you… _help_ her write this… _abomination?_ " Zuko said, his only eye wide.

"Uh… well… _No?_ "

Mai raised her eyebrows.

"Well… not _this_ anyway. I mean, when your sister comes up to a person and says, 'I've got an idea and _you_ will be assisting me'… well… she doesn't _reeeeally_ ask, you see?"

"Oh, sweet spirits…"

"I didn't think she was going to make a _play_ though!" Ty Lee said, flapping her hands in a display of over-excited embarrassment. "I just edited and made suggestions for the _Adventures._ Neither of us could really think of what you'd say most of the time! And… and…" her eyes darted to Katara, "honest, I didn't have anything to do with… you know… the parts with you. Sure, I nodded and smiled when she used to rant about you but-"

"Azula ranted about _me_?" Katara said.

"Oh yeah! You really got to her in Ba Sing Se. Even after Zuko… ah… well… she never admitted it, but it was pretty clear that she felt that, if Zuko hadn't intervened, you might have killed her. She was _reeeeally_ annoyed with that, so… ah… that's probably why she wrote you like… well… not very nicely."

"Oh shit," Toph said quietly.

Everyone glanced to Toph, then back to the stage…

Where Kasok was staring in wonder at a girl with white hair, dancing in a silver white spotlight.

 _Oh, Ash. Is that… damn, what was her name?_

"Yue?" Sokka whispered, as transfixed as his stage counter-part.

The scene had almost no dialog, acted out with only dance and musical accompaniment. Kasok seemed mesmerized by the girl who danced alone at center stage, a beautiful and graceful fan dance that somehow illustrated sadness, remoteness, and bone deep loneliness. After the dance was complete, she suddenly noticed Kasok and jumped like a startled rabbit-deer. She began to flee, but paused as Kasok reached out his hand again, like a man reaching for water after too long in the desert, an equally miserable look on his face.

Yue spun back to him and after a moment resumed her dance, this time gently coaxing Kasok to dance as well. Gradually the tempo of the music and the dance changed completely; Kasok and Yue beaming at one another, it was now one of enjoyment, excitement and with a subtle current of something deeper.

The music cut off and Kasok kissed her.

Yue smiled at him for a heartbeat, then slipped away, her face suddenly the picture of sorrow. Kasok caught her by the sleeve and looked a question at her. With a graceful sweep of her hand, meant to convey profound regret, she gestured to her elaborately styled hair, indicating the silver hair-combs that twinkled in the stage light.

She was engaged.

She shook her head sadly and made to glide away again, but Kasok lunged past her blocking her path. He made a fist at his chest, near his heart, the trembling of his hand declaring the depth of his emotion, his _love_ , for her. Yue wrapped her hands around the fist and brought it to her lips. The dance resumed, now illustrating a conversation, an argument, and a series of heartbreaks until Yue finally ended in Kasok's arms, beaming up at him, about to kiss him again…

But then the spotlight, and the music, went out, plunging the stage into silent semi-darkness, only a red glow in the backdrop remaining to illuminate the two lovers.

Then Yang Chen's voice came from off stage, plaintive and weak.

"I can't stop them! They're coming! We're all going to _die!_ "

Yue seemed to wilt in Kasok's arms.

"You _have_ to! Please! Save us!"

The dance resumed, the music low and funerial. Another argument, both painted faces anguished in indecision. Back in the box Katara had begun weeping into Zuko's shoulder, while Aang looked horrified and bitterly sad.

Sokka was frozen in wide-eyed shock.

On stage Yue kissed Kasok one final time, then knelt beside him as he frantically and still silently tried to change her mind.

The wakizashi she drew was Bone-White.

The fabric she drew out of her kimono to symbolize blood was Red.

The actress disappeared in a sudden mist, through a trapdoor.

And then the stage was once again illuminated in silver-white light, revealing an anguished looking Kasok reaching out plaintively again, this time towards the silvery light above him.

The sound of the woodblock rose, slowly, but with increasing tempo and force as the main curtain closed, signifying the end of the first act, and as it did the audience exploded into cheers and applause.

 _Oh… oh shit._ Zuko turned around to look at Sokka, to see how he was taking this.

But he, and Suki, were already gone.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"You mean to tell me… we can _leave?_ " Zuko asked, excited in the way of a man finding an exit from a rapidly collapsing building.

"Yeah. Once they started including intermission in kabuki a few years ago they got _reeeeally_ popular," Ty Lee said as they made their way away from their box seats and into the night air of one of the kabuki house's balconies. "It gives people a chance to stretch their legs and discuss the play at full volume."

"Also, snacks!" Toph said somewhat leadingly, the Duke grinning and nodding at her side.

"It _also_ gives us the opportunity to leave unobserved," Zuko said as he began fishing around in his coin purse for a few bu. "We can simply slip away from this travesty at the end of this 'intermission' and recover some portion of this night for training and-"

"We're not going _anywhere,_ " Katara said loudly, appearing in the open doorway to the balcony, Mai a half pace behind her.

It was a brief moment before Zuko could respond to that; Katara was being fierce _and_ wearing red. While he was gradually building up a tolerance to that sort of thing, when she appeared so suddenly it still had the tendency to derail him slightly. It also gave Toph the opportunity to swipe the entirety of his coin purse and abscond to the concession stand, the Duke in tow.

"Katara… why precisely would we stay?" Zuko asked after his brain had reassembled itself. "This play is both badly written-"

"Not _that_ badly," Ty Lee mumbled.

"-as well as enormously untrue and hurtful. You are not a… uh… well… _that._ Aang is not a complete coward-"

"Gee. Thanks," Aang said from his somewhat slumped position on a railing.

"And _I_ am not a silent, wooden board of a man, who only expresses himself in monosyllable."

There was a long and somewhat awkward silence.

"Yeah… that's not you at all," Mai drawled.

"Anyway," Zuko said, sensing the momentum shift, "I say we find Sokka and Suki, and leave before this gets any wor-"

"And let your sister win? Not a chance."

"My… this is not about _her,_ " Zuko growled. "I see no reason why-"

"Because we came here to have a good time, and I am NOT going to let your sister ruin that for me!" Katara snapped hands on her hips. "I am _not_ running away, my tail between my legs, just because somebody wants to make baseless accusations and slander." She sniffed and put her nose in the air somewhat primly. " _I_ am staying. _You_ are free to do what you want."

 _Oh yeah. Sure. "Free" to do what I want,_ Zuko thought sarcastically. _Free to throw myself into a volcano._

"Fine," Zuko said with a heavy sigh, "we'll stay."

Katara smiled as she and Mai exchanged a look. Mai nodded minutely in seeming approval, making Zuko's hackles rise suddenly and unexpectedly.

 _Oh, Ash and bone. Are they friends now? …I am so screwed._

"What _I_ want to know is… who is Ping?" Katara said, her voice losing its bossiness and dropping into a softer register as she advanced on him.

"Uh… well… I would rather not discuss this in publ-"

"Restroom!" Ty Lee blurted. "We need to go to the restroom," she said glancing at Mai who agreed with a nod.

"And I should go… too?" Aang said quickly. "And… uh… focus on my breathing. Somewhere else."

The three of them disappeared before Zuko could even begin to find an objection, leaving he and Katara alone. Grabbing his hands, she half-dragged him away from the entryway and down a small set of stairs to the balcony overlooking the town.

"Alright. We're alone. Now, who was Ping?"

"Katara… I am sure that there will be a better time to talk about-"

"Oh no. You're just stalling. I let you wait on this you'll just find some excuse to not tell me. Or try and distract me." She narrowed her eyes at him. "Possibly with shirtlessness."

Zuko grinned a somewhat lopsided grin at that as, most of the half-formed plans in his brain to avoid this conversation, _had_ involved shirtlessness of one variety or another. But the grin fell away quickly in the face of what Katara wanted from him.

"Ping… Ping was just a boy. He died. It was my fault. I don't like talking about it."

"You cared about him." Katara did not phrase it as a question.

"I… yes… I cared about him. Too much. He died… and I nearly got myself killed because of that."

"…Tell me about him?"

"I… what does it matter, Katara? He is dead. Just one more life at my feet, one more person I failed to save."

"It matters because you need to _grieve._ Remember? It's the good kind of hurt."

"I… I do not grieve well. That last time I nearly worked myself to death, pinching zeni, trying to shore up my dying nation. That time…" Zuko sighed bitterly, " _that_ time, I abandoned my post, invaded a fortress _alone_ , killed a family head, and set the place on fire." He shook his head again. "I think that maybe grief and I had better leave each other alone."

"Well, now I'm here," Katara said quietly. "I should be able to keep you from doing something stupid."

"And here I thought that was Mai's job," Zuko said making a stab at humor.

"Yes. Her job and my _hobby._ Now _talk."_

"Ping… Ping was an orphan," Zuko said after exhaling a deep puff of air. "When I… Ash… I need to go back a bit, I guess. When uncle and I left the home island for the first time, we ended up on the ship of lieutenant-commander Bayushi Zhao."

"Zhao?!"

"Oh yes. He was extremely rude, even then. And also furious at having to divert to take on the 'banished prince.' When we came into Chameleon Bay, we found that the southernmost village, Doromuri, was under siege. I demanded to go ashore, and Zhao eventually gave me a row boat… and a rower."

"Ping?"

"Yes. He was… Ash, he was just a cabin boy. He was ten, and Zhao sent him with me into what he thought was certain death. He couldn't even _swim_ , Katara! I had to… to teach him that too." Zuko barked a rather bitter laugh. "He nearly drowned when the earthers sank the rowboat! Who ever heard of a sailor who couldn't swim? I… pulled him out… I don't know why… back then… he was just a peasant and… Ash, I never _wanted_ a flaming retainer… but then I _had_ one. I had saved him and told him he worked for me and… he was with me through the whole siege, and most of the… the campaign. I was teaching him, you see? He was my responsibility. Ash, he was smart. He couldn't even read when I met him but, if you told him something, he could just… remember it; word for word. That's how I was teaching him to read and write, I'd read him a page out of the sailor's primer and then make him copy it down, sounding out the characters as he went. I… he…" Zuko trailed off as he suddenly found himself unable to continue, his throat clenching with emotion.

Katara stepped closer to him and rested a single hand on the mangled side of his face, swiping away the wetness that formed, unnoticed, in his dead eye.

"He had just had the most brilliant idea," Zuko said beginning again, remembering the way the boy had visualized the problem and formulated a theory. Remembering how strangely _proud_ he had been. "I thought that… we'd all agreed, he was ready for a new sword technique. We had been planning on sponsoring him into one of the academies later. He… the camp was attacked. I _knew_ the camp had been attacked before, _KNEW IT._ And… they… I…" words were getting harder to form now. Where before the _thing_ inside him might have pounced on and amplified the modicum of rage that accompanied the raw current of guilt that these memories inspired, now there was _only_ the guilt, the sorrow, and an overwhelming mournful howl that he'd never been able to give voice to.

Because of his pride. Because of his self-control. Because he knew if anyone had ever found out that the death of a mere retainer could affect him like this it would endanger everyone around him.

"Just breathe," Katara said quietly slipping her arms around him and giving him a squeeze. "I'm here. It's just us."

"I… sent him to go get my armor," Zuko said hoarsely. His eye seeing it. Seeing Ping's smiling face as he remembered that Zuko's armor was at the quartermaster's, running to go and get it, the _boken_ still in his belt. "I… I was too distracted… I should have seen… I should have gotten my own damn armor. I…" he trailed off again, teeth gritted, fists clenched and almost smoking.

 _Breathe._ The scent of seaspray and jasmine.

"He still had the _boken_ in his belt," Zuko said, his voice a harsh whisper. "A boken is a _weapon_ , and a person with a weapon is a _combatant,_ and those fucking earther scum _killed_ my Ping. Caved his head in. I found him still clutching my armor, like he thought it might protect him, boken _undrawn_ in his belt. He was just a… a little boy and I _never_ wore that fucking armor again. I threw it in the Ash-spawned ocean after I gave Ping a samurai's funeral." Zuko exhaled a shuddering breath, growing aware of his surroundings again and of Katara, who was now weeping quietly into the front of his shirt again.

Weeping for a little boy she'd never get the chance to meet.

"After that I swam into Shiro Yoritomo, killed its leader and set it on fire. After that I _really_ started hunting the Avatar. Nothing else was important. Even though I knew the task was pointless, it was all I had anymore. All I could allow myself to care about anymore. I couldn't do that again, couldn't _care_ like that again. It made me _weak,_ you see? Made me unable to be rational, to perform my duties. So, I hunted. I trained. I did what little I could for my people while they stared at me like I was either a Kami or a freak until I couldn't take it anymore." Zuko managed to find a smile as he gazed down into the watery eyes of the woman he loved, now looking back up at him. "So, I sailed _south._ To the frozen _barbarian_ South Pole, to try and find something resembling calm. I was _remarkably_ unsuccessful at that. Though, I have to say, in the end, I think it worked out alright."

There was the barest second where a wet-eyed Katara beamed up at him, and then she was kissing him like their lives depended on it. The kind of kiss that, in Zuko's experience, usually led to the rapid shedding of clothing.

He managed to restrain himself in that regard, however. While they were alone, the were _still_ in public.

"I'm sorry," Katara said still holding him tightly after they had separated and regained their breath, both of them leaning against the balcony's railing like a pair of punch-drunk fighters in the last round of a bout. "I am so _so_ sorry that that happened, but I am glad you told me."

Zuko only nodded, finishing the motion by resting his forehead against hers.

"...We should go find Sokka, and make sure he's alright," Katara said after a long time.

"Not yet. Just… a little longer. Please," Zuko said quietly.

"Of course," Katara said snuggling into him pleasantly.

"I… need to… to… I cannot let anyone see me like this. See me so…"

"Zuko, it's ok to-"

"No, it's not. It is _not_ , and you will never convince me otherwise. I have to… I have to be strong. _Have to._ "

Katara's brows creased downward in frustration.

"But…" Zuko continued, "I… I think I'm ok with you seeing… knowing I'm weak. I think… I can do that. I love you."

"I love you too, grumpy-bear."

They stood there for a long while, half-leaning against the balcony's railing while Zuko gathered himself, finding the scattered pieces of his scowling mask and refitting them back together.

It seemed easier than he remembered. Calm, it seemed, was so much easier to find without a demon inside you, and once calm was found the two of them set off to track down Sokka and Suki.

Who, it seemed, were having an argument of their own.

"Why didn't you just _tell_ me," Suki said, her voice sounding several degrees of hurt and cross from around a corner where Katara drew Zuko and herself to a halt.

"I… just…" Sokka began, and around the corner Zuko and Katara began a silent argument with hand gestures and facial expressions over whether they should stay or go.

"Look… Suki… I loved her, alright? Losing Yue…" Sokka sighed. "Losing Yue _hurt._ It hurt me a lot. I just… I didn't want to talk about it with you. I didn't want to try and compare her to you, and I _don't_ want you to try and compare yourself to her."

"You think I would? I know I'm not some… beautiful Crane princess."

"You see what you just did there? Comparison. What I was trying to avoid."

"Sokka… stop trying to be cute."

"I'm not! It's just… Yue doesn't have anything to do with you. I just want… I want this to be its own thing. Ok?"

"But Yue does have something to do with you, and that makes it part of _this_ and I… I love you," Suki said quietly.

Katara made a face that very plainly said "Awwww," and Zuko resumed trying to shoo her away from what should have been a private moment.

"I love you too," Sokka said quietly and to Zuko's mortification there was the sudden very distinct sound of kissing.

Katara's "awwww" face just grew wider and Zuko contemplated simply throwing her over his shoulder and making a run for it.

"We'll talk about this later. After the play. Promise," Sokka said softly. "We can leave the sharing of personal stuff till we get home… unlike my SNOOP of a SISTER, who thinks that the open-air balcony of a theater is the best place for kiss-therapy!"

Zuko rolled his eyes heavenward as Katara fired up immediately.

"Sharing is IMPORTANT!" she shouted still from around the corner.

"And so are BOUNDARIES!" Sokka retorted overtop of a giggling Suki.

"I tried to stop her," Zuko offered.

"I know ya did, buddy," Sokka said coming around the corner with Suki. "But it'd take more than an army to stop my sister from snooping."

Katara's only response was to stick her tongue out at him.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

The curtain rose just as the four of them regained their seats, and the sudden and jarringly triumphal strains of the Fire-Nation anthem nearly made Sokka trip and fall over. Prince Kozu appeared holding a Fire-Nation battle standard and leading a military procession from the rear of the theater and up the central walkway, towards a backdrop depicting a smoking mountain city with Fire-Nation banners draped over its walls and labeled as "Omashi."

 _Now she's giving me credit for Omashu? What the ash?_

The narrating actress off to in the wings gave another, possibly more explicit than was purely necessary, accounting of the battle that Kozu was meant to have fought. She explained that, after his defeat at the hands of spirits in the North, Kozu had fallen even further into disfavor and had captured the fortress city in an attempt at recompence. Why he, or anyone for that matter, would think that a land victory in the Earth-Kingdom should make up for a naval defeat at the North Pole was, as usual, not touched upon.

" _Did_ you conquer Omashu?" Aang asked quietly.

"No. Technically, Mai's father did."

"Lord Bumi never even fought," Mai said quietly. "He just surrendered conditionally." She paused for a moment, then stiffened and bowed. "I… must apologize. I never thanked you all for looking after my brother." She bowed further, as far as she could from the seated position. "I, Shosuro Mai, thank you. For my brother's life, I thank you."

Sokka and Katara grinned as Aang bowed back.

After another moment everyone's attention was drawn back to the stage with the sound of the woodblock. Kozu was alone now, frozen in his mie, a Fire-Nation banner in one hand, his red katana above his head in the other, his face contorted in a bestial roar of victory.

The pose of a victorious conqueror.

"Why does she keep _doing_ that?" Zuko said confusion and frustration obvious in his hushed voice. "Why be… _complimentary_?"

"Because it's a _tragedy,"_ Ty Lee said quietly, "you have to build them up, before you knock them down."

"I have a suggestion," Toph said in her normal brusque tone. "Maybe you dipshits would have a better time of this if you just do what I do."

"Be loud and annoying?"

"Swear unnecessarily?"

"Steal my entire money pouch and spend it all on fire-gummies?"

"Nope," Toph said, entirely unimpressed with all of them. "You need to figure out that it's only a tragedy… if you _let_ it be. With the right attitude…" she paused dramatically, leaning back in her seat with her hands behind her head "… it's a fucking _comedy."_

" _Comedy_?" Sokka said, just shy of a growl.

"Ok. Comedy, with a _dash_ of based-on-real-life tragic events. But that just makes the rest of it even _more_ ridiculous, doesn't it? I mean the fact that Zuko's gravel-chewing sister wrote _herself_ into the play is mildly hilarious."

"She did what?"

And there she was. The actress who had only a few minutes prior been simply the narrator had, with a quick on-stage costume change, been revealed to be the Crown-Princess "Ichibana" and was already halfway through giving a rather imperious lecture to Kozu at center stage. Kozu, on one knee in deference, simply nodded in repeated acquiescence.

"She _didn't?"_ Ty Lee said, completely aghast. "A self-insert? Oh dear."

"That… that's just…" Zuko couldn't seem to figure out _what_ it was.

"Funny?" Toph offered, a triumphant grin plastered on her face.

"…Sure …Funny. Why not."

It _was_ mildly amusing that Azula had named her stand-in "The Very Best."

It transpired the Kozu's true penance for his failure at the North Pole was to go undercover, pose as a ronin and refugee, and infiltrate the city of "Na Sing Se" which Toph, with another snicker, announced meant the _very_ penetrable city. Sokka snickered along with her as Suki glared at the back of Zuko's head.

Kozu nodded again as he rose from his kneeling position, severing his topknot and handing over his wakizashi with a half growled "For Honor."

Several of the audience members gasped in surprise at this, as this was apparently all new to them. Kozu stalked off stage right while Ichibana was joined by two figures who appeared out of the wings, one all in black the other all in pink. Flanked on either side by her suspiciously familiar henchmen she made a rousing narrative speech about how her brother's sacrifice would not be in vain, and that the Fire-Nation's ultimate victory was now certain.

Katara rolled her eyes ostentatiously as the curtain dropped to the sound of the woodblock.

"Ok, what _actually_ happened?"

"Azula tried to get me and uncle on board her ship by saying that our… the Fire-Lord regretted banishing us, and wanted us back."

"Back in _chains_ ," Mai said quietly.

"Yes. Luckily, the fool who was in command of her boat gave the ruse away before we set sail. Honestly, I don't know why Azula picked someone that stupid to be her-"

"What? Her boyfriend? Well she wasn't going to just leave him behind," Ty Lee said idly.

"…her what?" Zuko said, his eye narrowing.

"Her boyfriend? What _was_ that one's name, Mai?"

"Shino, I think."

Zuko's face twitched.

"Not that she was _that_ broken up about it. He'd probably run his course and bored her by that point. But _then_ you beat the poo out of the next one, back at the train. She was _reeeeally_ not pleased. We found him curled up and whimpering after we dragged ourselves out of the river."

"And then there was Chan," Mai offered. "Although I think that, shockingly, he was smart enough to go while the going was good."

"Mai. New orders. You will find both Chan and that _other_ one and I will put their-"

"Alright. Shut it, idiots," Toph snapped, a ferocious grin on her face. "It. Is. TIME."

In the face of Toph's interruption, and Katara's mildly disapproving half-frown, Zuko shelved his only vaguely formed plans to dismember Damasu Chan and the soldier he only barely remembered from the badlands outside of Tu Zin. He instead focused on the stage where Yang Chen and the "Gyang" were assembled and loudly despairing over the fact that they couldn't seem to find an earthbending teacher anywhere.

Then the lights dimmed as a booming laugh began to sound from somewhere underneath the stage. Toph lept to her feet, wiggling her toes on the stone floor to get a better "look" at what was happening.

Then amid the drumming of the hayashi's taiko drummers a trap door opened and out emerged…

 _Oh, Ash and bone._

The figure was enormous. Easily a half a foot taller than the real Zuko or Aang and, despite the feminine kimono and face paint, was the most obviously _male_ person on the stage.

"UnderGROUND is the only place to find a TRUE earthbender!" The figure boomed, voice as masculine as their face and posture.

"Wait a minute…" Toph said, cocking her head to the side.

"I am Qiangying!" The figure roared. "But you morons can call me 'Tough' because that's EXACTLY what I am!"

"…why do I sound like…"

"Toph, sweetheart, remember this… this is… funny? Right?" Katara tried, a worried look on her face. "It's not an accurate-"

"Frozen Hells, Toph! You're a giant dude!" Sokka said his mouth open slightly. He gave a small cry of dismay as Suki smacked him upside the head.

Zuko face-palmed and prepared himself to scoop Toph off the ground and make a speedy exit before she could tear the island in half.

"That's… AWESOME!" Toph cried.

 _What?_

"Oh man, that's _perfect_!"

"Wait, you're not upset?" Katara asked in surprise.

"Are you _kidding_ me! This is the best! All the perks of being a badass and now nobody could _possibly_ recognize me! Everyone's gonna think I'm some huge fucking meathead." She laughed maniacally along with her stage counterpart. "I was worried they were going to make me some fucking pantywaist Earth-Kingdom noblewoman flower. Or a flying bald lady."

Aang groaned and buried his face in his hands.

"Why dress him up as a lady though?" Mai asked quietly, more curious than afraid of Toph's potentially violent reaction.

"Oh, well, it's a call back to tradition," Ty Lee said brightly, and not at all quietly so as to be heard over the roar of laughter from Toph and the rest of the audience. "About a thousand years ago, Fire-Lord… I think it was one of the Ieysu's… maybe the third… anyway, they decided that it wasn't 'appropriate' for women to be kabuki actors. Never mind that, originally, it was _only_ women. He decided that it should be _all_ guys for some reason. So, for a good long while, kabuki had the Onnagata, who were male performers who specialized in portraying women. But then we got Fire-Lord _Ming,_ and everybody knows what happened _then_."

"Uh, no? What happened th-" whatever Suki was about to ask was never heard as all eyes were drawn back to the stage where "Tough" the earthbender was emitting a high-pitched "sonic wave" right in Kasok's face.

The entire theater fell silent at the awfulness of the sound.

 _What the fu-_

"There. Got a pretty good look at ya," Tough said with a grin. "You're kind of _cute_ , aren't you?"

Kasok looked entirely terrified even as Toph, Tough, and the rest of the audience resumed laughing.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Zuko had to admit that, while he was still not happy about Katara being portrayed as a seductress, the rest of the act was surprisingly kind to him and, when viewed appropriately, mildly amusing.

His duel in Haiya against Gao the honorless samurai was actually acted out as a real fight; well-choreographed despite being in defiance of normal kabuki dance-playacting. The three incompetent guards were portrayed as foolish and bumbling, knocking one another off their feet with poorly wielded spears. In the aftermath Kozu even broke his silence to explain that, moved as he was by the plight of the earthbenders, his task _did_ have some measure of honor in it. Surely the village he had seen would be better off under Fire-Nation rule.

While there was no mention of Avatar Day, or the village of Chin, Kozu and Arakata did meet again by a riverside, exchanging banter and blades at first but eventually "warming" to one another. They both at separate times in their "duel" stepped forward to monologue, both of them assuring the audience, and themselves, that they were both only _pretending_ to be interested in one another, to spy and gain information about their enemies. Katara's stage version was even allowed a modicum of martial competence in the face of Kozu's assault.

The scene ended with a mild musical flourish and a kiss.

All of which just made the next scene all the more effective.

Ichibana and her two minions appeared for a moment, obviously tracking both Kozu and Yang Chen's progress across the badlands. Ichibana and the actress the program listed as "Li Ty" continued across the stage while the black clad woman halted at center until the other two had disappeared.

Then, with very little warning, she burst into _song_.

There was a stunned beat as the actress's voice filled the theater.

Then Zuko, fighting back a grin, turned to look at Mai, who looked about as quietly furious as he had ever seen her.

"So… you _sang?…_ About…" Zuko paused for a moment to allow his mismatched ears to pick up the topic of the actress's lament, "about… your 'lost love' in the badlands."

He paused a moment to listen to more of the song.

She wasn't half bad.

"So… Mai," he continued restraining a snort of laughter, "if you would rather… pursue your _singing career…_ I would be _more_ than happy to release you from-"

Mai suddenly had a rather wicked looking kunai in her hand.

"I am suddenly reminded of Fire-Lord Tomaku, who reigned for many years without a tongue," Mai said, her tawny eyes narrowed. "Perhaps _you_ might contemplate this. _Silently_."

"Yeah, shush," Katara said quietly, her slightly misty eyes on the singer. "I am _trying_ to listen."

Zuko had to admit that, when taken by itself, it was a lovely scene. The actress had a powerful and moving voice, and as her song was about her long held, silent, and unrequited love for Prince Kozu, who had only the scene previous been making out with the villainous Arakata, it was tremendously sad.

But, as it was _supposed_ to be Mai, who was about as likely to start singing as a puma-goat, Zuko couldn't help but snicker along with Toph and Sokka, which earned all three of them many cross looks from Katara, Suki, Ty Lee and occasionally Aang.

Mai was patently ignoring everything, and the Duke was now fast asleep, snuggled into Suki's side.

The Battle at Tu Zin was played off as Ichibana simply dropping off Kozu's false paperwork, and then accidentally colliding with Yang Chen. Ichibana, of course, only _pretended_ to be outmatched and cornered by her enemies before escaping.

Zuko was not the only one who rolled his eyes at this.

After the curtain fell on that scene, Ichibana re-appeared at the stage's wing, returning briefly to her role as the narrator but now with her henchmen in tow. She expressed serious concern over Kozu's situation as she had only intended him to sneak into Na Sing Se and help undermine the city from within with his martial prowess. She lamented over his likely fate at the hands of the "Unicorn Temptress" and the black-clad actress, who the program listed as "Uchiki," sagged in despair. After the other two had left she once again burst into song, a brief, but powerful reprisal of her previous one.

Not as funny as the last time, but still worth a chortle.

Then, suddenly, without any warning or explanation, Arakata and Kozu were arguing in the crystal catacombs.

"Wait? No drill? No Dai Li? I mean, I built a whole _zoo_ in that city," Aang said in mild surprise.

"Typical," Zuko growled. Kabuki often skipped what should have been important parts, and the players of Ember Island were notorious for making cuts to scripts, editing them down with little regard for coherency.

"Well, I for one am glad," Ty Lee said brightly, "it took me _weeks_ to get the smell of oily slurry out of that outfit."

"The drill was unsuccessful and thus of little importance to Azula," Mai said quietly. "The Dai Li's betrayal… I was _there_ and even I have trouble believing it."

"How _did_ she do it?" Zuko said quietly, doing his best to ignore the arguing figures that were supposed to represent him and Katara.

"I doubt that _you've_ ever noticed but, generally speaking, when an _Akodo_ tells someone to do something they either do it, or get out of the way," Mai said with a sigh and a roll of her eyes. "Your sister is no exception, she basically just schemed very charismatically, and when she told Long Feng that he was beaten he just folded in half like boiled udon."

Zuko sighed and shook his head, turning back to the stage that Kozu and Arakata were now standing at opposite ends of, angrily and pointedly _not_ looking at one another.

"Fifty percent," Katara said quietly, slipping her fingers back in between his.

"Fifty percent," Zuko agreed, giving her a smile and a squeeze.

"It's _odd_ though," Ty Lee said from behind them. "If Arakata and Kozu were meant to be just manipulating one another, then why would they be so mad? I mean it gives the impression that they really _do_ care about one another."

Zuko brought their joined hands to his lips to kiss the back of Katara's hand, and she beamed at him for a moment before frowning slightly and looking past him.

"Where's Aang?"

Zuko turned his head, bringing the cushion were Aang had been sitting out of his blind spot only to find it empty.

"He's getting me more fireflakes," Sokka said waving his hand dismissively.

Katara sighed, shaking her head in disagreement. "I should go talk to him."

"I… am not sure that will help," Zuko said quietly.

"I can't just leave him be. You're not the only one who needs to talk about things."

"…should I come with you?"

"No. The last thing we need now is another fountain melting fight," Katara said rising to her feet and walking out of the box.

After she had disappeared, Mai leaned forward and, with a hand on his shoulder and a raised eyebrow, asked Zuko a silent question.

Zuko contemplated it for about half a heartbeat, but shook his head in negation. He trusted Katara, and having Mai spy on her private conversations was _not_ a good way of expressing that.

 _She can handle herself,_ he thought as Aang's stage surrogate writhed in agony, a faux lightning bolt made of silver ribbon attached to her chest.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"Spit and stones this is the best fucking play ever!" Toph said happily as she led the way back out into the cool night air of the balcony.

"Toph… you just… you just _died_ in there," Sokka said sounding mildly horrified.

"Yeah, but what a way to go, right? Ass-kicking last stand at the gate while you idiots run away, smashing through, like, a dozen dudes? I mean, correct me if I mis-heard, but I think I threw one of those dipshits _right_ into the audience!"

"Two, actually," Zuko said. "And, judging by their facial expressions, that was _not_ scripted."

"But… you _died,_ " Sokka said softly. He sounded like Toph's death was something that he had never even contemplated.

"Yeah? Again, it's just a fucking play, Meathead," Toph said dismissively. "Nothing down there really happened… 'cept the parts where Sugar and Spice here got it on."

Sokka made a noise of disgust and flung his arm around Suki to drag her off towards the concession stand.

"…And that _other_ part?" Zuko said quietly, once the two of them had gone out of earshot.

Right before Tough the earthbender's last stand she had grabbed Kasok by his ears and pulled him into a rather vigorous pantomime kiss, much to the audience's amusement. Then she had thrown him in a low arc off stage after Yang Chen and proceeded to charge down the enemy firebenders.

"Nah… that never happened either," Toph said quietly.

She and Zuko stood there quietly for a moment, leaning against the wall and waiting for their friends to return and for the last, and most likely terrible act, to commence.

Suddenly Toph's fist swung out and slammed into Zuko's upper arm.

"Ow."

"Stop fucking pacing, Sparky, I told you, it makes my toes twitch."

"I am not moving."

"Your _feet_ aren't, but your fucking _heart_ is. Spit and stones, she's just fine. Heart's as steady as an iron-built outhouse."

"And Aang?" Zuko asked, doing his best to ignore the metaphor that paired his girlfriend with a latrine.

"…Flighty," Toph said after a moment. "But he's always flighty. I know he's trying but he just doesn't have the fucking temperament for this shit."

Zuko just sighed in somewhat bitter frustration.

"Honestly, you'd think that you three asshats would remember that there's a _war_ on? Now really isn't the time for this touchy-feely shit."

"You are telling _me_ this? I have been trying to keep-"

"Oh, _sure,_ " Toph said sarcastically. "And what the fuck was that fight last week about? Just a disagreement over who got the last won-ton?"

"It was not…" Zuko sighed again. "There were _other_ factors involved in that."

"Ohhhh. Was it that whole super-angst-murder-monster-demon thing then?"

Zuko's mouth dropped open in surprise.

"Yeah, she told me," Toph said, her finger now up her nose.

"Un _believable_ ," Zuko snapped. "How- why-" he was now fairly certain that he was going to have to have an unpleasant conversation with Katara about over-sharing what _should_ have been rather private things.

"Yeah, don't get your panties in a twist, Hotpants. I was kinda _blackmailing_ her. She promised to tell me all the _spicy_ details back in Ba Sing Se and, in exchange, I promised to distract Snoozles and Twinkletoes when she was late coming home."

"Oh." Zuko changed his mind about that conversation. "Thank you," he offered.

"Don't worry about it, it was a fair trade."

"I must admit that… I am surprised she tolerated such an arrangement."

"Well, she was pretty annoyed about it at first… but after a while she was glad to have somebody to talk to about it. She was…" Toph gave a shudder, "… _gushy_ about it sometimes. It was… _sweet."_ She said that last word like it was a particularly vulgar curse.

"If you didn't like it then… why?"

"Well, at first, I just liked how embarrassed it made her. Later it was… nice. She wasn't super gushy most of the time and… you made her really happy." Toph admitted this like it was a great secret. "Food was always better when she was happy, and she was… steady. Like a rock. Or a _river,_ I guess. Like she is right now." Her fist suddenly slammed into his upper arm again with serious ferocity. "You do that again, I'll fucking _kill_ you."

"Good," Zuko said seriously before smirking slightly. "But, you will likely have to stand in line."

"Yeah, true. I'll just grind whatever's left into paste."

"Acceptable… but, ultimately unnecessary. I will _die_ first."

"Yeah, I know. I just like hitting people."

"I have noticed," Zuko said tousling her hair and immediately dodging another swipe of her arm, a wide grin on his face. "It's how you show _affection."_

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

The curtain was rising on the third act when Katara made her way back into the box and to her cushion at Zuko's side. The both of them sat silently as Ichibana narrated the passage of time after the Fire-Nation's victory over Na Sing Se.

"How did it go?" Zuko asked after glancing to his left and seeing that Aang had not yet returned.

"Not as well as I would have liked," Katara said, taking his hand into her lap and re-winding her fingers through his. "We should have never come to this stupid play."

"We can still just leave," Zuko said restraining excitement. "The Duke has been asleep for the last hour, we can just pack up and-"

"We need to stay. Mai is right, I… _we're_ going to need to get used to this kind of thing."

Zuko only frowned at her in a question.

"I know that you think things will be easy for us after the war, but we're both going to have to get used to a lot of people _talking._ Saying things that… things you are _not_ going to like."

"The palace at Otosan Uchi has a great many spikes. And, as I will be the Fire-Lord, if I take too many _heads_ I can just commission more."

"You know perfectly well you won't be able to kill everyone," Katara said with an exasperated huff. "And unless you've got a better reason than 'being rude' I'm going to have to put my foot down."

"Alright, so, what if I just make a few examples? Really make sure everyone knows that-"

"Highness?" Mai said with a very audible, if not visible, smirk. "You _may_ want to watch this next part."

Mai's stage doppelganger, Uchiki, had begun singing again, another sad lament full of metaphor and simile, now about how even though her love had returned to her he remained out of reach. His mind still wandering in the strange lands outside of the Fire-Nation, and his heart lost as well to another woman. Lost to the "rolling wave" and "the distant hill" as the song put it.

But _then_ from the other side of the stage, Prince Kozu…

…against all reason, logic, and common-sense…

…began _singing_ as well.

A slow rolling baritone that harmonized with Uchiki's new lament.

Zuko's lone eye bugged slightly as the other occupants of the box around him sat in stunned silence for a brief moment.

Then everyone but him began to laugh, muffling the sound in their hands and sleeves so as not to draw too much attention to themselves in the now enraptured theater.

As Zuko looked around in horrified shock he noted that even the Duke had managed to wake up in time to witness this utter humiliation.

"Do you really sing?" he asked, still somewhat groggily.

Zuko just shook his head firmly as Katara laughed hysterically into his shoulder.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

The third act ended up being much shorter than the two previous. Zuko felt that this was, by far, its _only_ saving grace.

Obviously, there was no discussion of the Fire-Nation's economic woes, no mention of Lord Soshi or the Painted Lady, and only the barest discussion of the Avatar at all.

Even the Battle of Black Sun was only mentioned tangentially and was replaced primarily by Arakata, once again back in the role of a temptress, sneaking into the palace somehow to once again tempt Prince Kozu into dishonor. She implied, without saying it outright, that she was carrying Kozu's child and these conflicting duties, to nation and to his potential offspring, manifested themselves in Kozu… with _another_ song.

Zuko continued to be enormously unimpressed.

He scowled and rolled his eyes as Kozu flung himself ridiculously from one side of the stage to the other as he debated with himself, his progress marked and made more intense by the gradually diminishing light of the prop Sun fading in eclipse behind him.

Kozu managed to succumb to Arakata's "wiles" just as the Sun faded entirely to black.

"I love how this is all _my_ fault," Katara said quietly.

"I love that I seem to have turned into a feckless incompetent who can't make up his mind about anything without _singing_ about it first," Zuko whispered back.

"I love that I haven't been on stage for more than five minutes in this act," Aang said from his other side.

Both Zuko and Katara glanced over to see the young man back in his seat, watching the production with the air of a man contemplating a great work of art.

"I have to admit that I like the songs though. While the subject matter is rather sad, the music itself is quite will structured."

"Isn't it though?" Ty Lee said happily, and the two of them began chatting animatedly, albeit quietly, about the musical score.

Zuko, meanwhile, began humming "Down with the Avatar" under his breath while Katara swatted him until he stopped.

Ichibana returned again to give a dramatic speech about how her brother had descended into guilty madness after his betrayal, raising an army of "fools only seeking to gain power" to lay waste to the Fire-Nation. She lamented the necessity, but acknowledged to the audience that she would have to slay her own brother for the good of the Nation.

The final scene brought back the normal kabuki stylings, large formations of loyal Fire-Nation soldiers advanced in dancing formations and were slain by a wild-eyed Kozu, his face paint changed subtly to make him seem more wild and feral. Eventually Ichibana appeared, dancing through the formations to try and strike her brother down.

Uchiki of course appeared briefly and threw herself in between Ichibana's blade and Kozu.

She died… but not before singing yet another song.

Ichibana advanced again in the wake of Uchiki's death, proclaiming that Kozu would face her alone if he had any honor left, a showdown that was always meant to be.

They fought again. Ichibana, just as she was named, was the better of them.

Kozu died… but also not before he got the opportunity to sing again.

There was no laughter in the box this time, however, and while Zuko was rolling his eye at the ridiculousness of it Katara had grown slightly misty-eyed and her hand, still entwined in his, squeezed fiercely.

Arakata appeared in the wings, gasping in surprise, just as Kozu finally succumbed to his wounds. The last word of his song, a loud and passionate cry of "Honor," trailed away with the sound of the band, leaving only a curious sound in the theater.

Zuko leaned over the railing of the box to look below and saw that at least a third of the audience was in tears at his apparent death.

 _Ash. They must have been serving alcohol somewhere in h-_

His thoughts were cut off at a loud honking noise from behind him as Ty Lee blew her nose below her also slightly weepy eyes.

Ichibana and Arakata eyed one another silently and then, with a small nod, Arakata sank to her knees and pulled out her wakizashi, eliciting loud gasps from the audience.

"Ash and bone," Zuko swore, mildly stunned.

On stage Arakata committed seppuku, red cloth trailing from her loose purple robes as Ichibana's sword descended with the curtain to take her head.

"Well, _that_ was surprising," Mai said as the lights began to come up, rubbing Ty Lee's back as she sobbed into Mai's shoulder.

"What? That I would kill myself over a guy?" Katara said, wiping her eyes.

"No. You killing yourself after my death implies… well, it implies that you actually _were_ in love with me," Zuko said climbing to his feet. "It is surprising that, after they spent so much time painting you a villain, they would give you a traditional lover's death. All told this was a pretty standard Fire-Nation romance."

"Well it's a good thing I'm not Fire-Nation then," Katara said as Zuko helped her up. "In the Unicorn, we prefer it when everybody lives happily ever after."

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"The rooooolling wave!"

"Shut up, Toph."

"…and the diiiiiistant hill!"

"Sokka, I will hurt you. I will take that boomerang and shove it right up your-"

"My looooove is looooost to the miiiiiisty laaaand," Toph and Sokka crooned together.

"Katara? May I have your permission to murder your brother?"

"No."

"I can make it quite painless?"

"NO."

"HOOOONNOOOR!" the Duke cried, now wide awake, charging forward past the rest of the group, a stick clenched in his hand as they walked back to the Winter Palace.

"That was _not_ a good play," Zuko grumbled.

"Actually," Ty Lee piped up, "while it diverged from normal kabuki stylings and tradition at times, its use of metaphor and symbolism was actually quite poetic. The musical score and tragic elements really tied the whole thing together and-"

"You mean the parts where we all died?" Suki said wryly.

"While that _was_ slightly depressing," Ty Lee continued, soldiering on, "please remember that this was a _fictional_ work! My Mai does not sing, Zuko is not a crazy person, and Katara is just about the nicest person I've ever met!"

"Awww, thank you, Ty."

"I, for one, enjoyed myself greatly," Ty Lee said with a smile. "Mai?"

Mai continued walking for a beat before responding.

"I prefer _Noh_ theater."

Zuko snorted in amusement as Ty Lee stopped in place, her mouth slightly ajar.

"Sweetie? Did you… did you just make a _joke?_ "

"How was _that_ a joke?" Sokka said eyeing them both in surprise.

"'Noh' theater? 'No' theater? It's a play on words! EEEE!" Ty Lee flung her arms around Mai in excitement.

"…The Fire-Nation is so weird," Sokka said after a moment.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

It was reasonably late by the time they all arrived back at the Winter Palace and, despite Aang's pleas, he and Zuko would still be getting up with the Sun the next morning for training. Zuko had only had enough time to change into his sleeping robe when there was a soft knock at the door to his rooms.

He slid the door open to reveal Katara, also in her sleeping robe, her hands behind her back.

"Hello," Zuko said stupidly.

Her sleeping robe was new, and _also_ red, which was still a problem.

"So-" "I-" they said, both trying to begin at the same time.

The both babbled for a moment, trying to decide who would go first. Eventually Katara, a small smile underneath a nearly luminescent blush, simply gestured for Zuko to begin.

"You… you are not allowed to do… _that,"_ Zuko said quietly.

Katara looked simultaneously confused and annoyed at this rather unilluminating statement.

"When…" Zuko shook his head, "If I… fall… you are not allowed to… to… follow me. Alright? There is too much at stake, and… Kiyi will need your help. You are not allowed to-"

"Firstly, we don't really do that sort of thing in the Unicorn," Katara said, cutting him off with a disdainfully cocked eyebrow. "Second," and here she leaned forward with an only half-powered glare, "you are _not_ allowed to die. I forbid it."

"Well. I suppose if you 'forbid' it…" Zuko said with a half-smile.

Katara nodded firmly, then suddenly looked unsure of herself again. She huffed and then pulled her arms out from behind her back, revealing a large rectangle wrapped in brown paper, which she thrust forward.

"What's this?" Zuko asked taking the parcel.

"It's… a present for… well… it's…"

"A book it feels like," Zuko offered.

"Well… open it," Katara said, torn between bossiness and nervousness.

So Zuko, with the precision of a master firebender, cut through the paper with a single finger, revealing…

"Love Amongst the Embers?" Zuko said, his eyebrow rising in surprise and confusion.

"Yeah… I… I pulled that out of Wan Shi Tong's library before it collapsed," Katara said, her eyes downcast. "Reading it… explained a lot about… um… the Fire-Nation."

 _Me. She means it explained a lot about me._

"And… it…" she took the book from his hands gently and opened it to a bookmarked page near the middle.

"You are here. Here with me now, in this place. And there is no one here but us," Zuko read aloud. His eye widened in surprise and he flicked back a few pages to verify that the person being calmed from a murderous fury… _was_ an Akodo.

"Oh," he said.

"So, you can see that… I mean it _is_ a melodrama… but… well… I liked it… and it was helpful… so…"

Zuko palmed the book closed and, with his free hand, tilted Katara's chin up and away from the floor.

And then he kissed her.

"Thank you," Zuko said after they separated, the words intended for _so_ much more than just the book. They smiled at one another for a moment before…

"The rooooolling wave!" sang a pair of voices from down the hall.

"Spirits," Zuko said looking towards the ceiling as though hoping to find what it was that he had ever done to piss the kami off so badly.

"and the diiiiiistant hill!"

"While Zuko is not allowed to kill any of you, _I_ make no such promises," Katara called down the hall towards the voices.

"My looooove is looooost to the miiiiiisty laaaand,"

"GO. TO BED!" Katara snapped.

Sokka and Toph laughed uproariously, their voices fading away as they went back to their rooms.

"Honestly, you'd think the two of them were _ten_ the way they act."

"Younger. The Duke is more mature than them."

The two of them stood silent for a beat, resettling back into the moment.

"Thank you," Zuko said again, bringing the book back in front of himself. "I suppose I will have to give it another try."

"I know it's not really your kind of thing but… it really helped me… and us, a lot. I thought that it would be a good present."

"It is… but why? Is it a Unicorn holiday that I don't know about?"

 _Damn. I'll have to get Sokka to compile me a list of-_

"It… I mean it's after midnight. It _is_ your birthday, isn't it?" Katara said, blinking in confusion. "Mai and Ty Lee seemed to think it was."

"…Oh." Zuko did the math in his head for a moment. "Well… yes. I suppose it is."

"How can you not remember your own birthday?" Katara asked skeptically, her hands now planted on her hips.

"Uh… well… my birthdays usually… well, they are usually not the best of days."

"Well… I guess I'll have to do something about that," Katara said. She suddenly smirked and cocked her hip to the side.

"I must admit, Prince Zuko, I find you _very_ attractive."

"Oh, no. Not you too, Katara."

"Your _bedchamber_ must be so… _cold_ at night," Katara said stepping forward and fiddling with the collar of his sleeping robe, making a stab at capturing Arakata's sultriness.

"Uhh…" Zuko's mouth was suddenly rather dry. "Well… it's Ember Island… in the summer… so… no?"

Katara quirked an eyebrow at him.

"I mean… YES. Very cold… because… honor?"

"… You know, you're much better at this when you're not trying so hard."

"I am much better at this when _you_ are not trying so hard."

Katara sighed. "Zuko, your girlfriend is standing at your door, in her sleeping robe, in the middle of the night, on your birthday. What precisely do you think this means?"

"Uh… well… as this has never happened to me before…"

Katara sighed again before unexpectedly smiling as though she'd had a brilliant idea. Suddenly she grabbed "Love Amongst the Embers" from his hands and began to glance furtively over her shoulder in a pantomime of surprise and horror.

"Oh no! The _Pirates_ have found me! Curse this waterbending scroll! I need to get away, to warn everyone!" Then she took a long step forward, purposely colliding with Zuko's chest, seeming to almost fall over before Zuko's hands shot out and grabbed her forearms by reflex.

 _Spirits, she is ridiculous,_ Zuko thought even as his face contorted into a wide grin.

"…Don't worry," he said aloud, still grinning as he leaned down into Katara's now entirely unfrightened face, " _I'll_ save you from the pirates."

Then he hoisted a now laughing Katara over his shoulder as he had done once before and slammed the door to his room shut behind them.

Somehow, the fact that there were no trees to tie anyone to, bothered neither of them.

* * *

 **A/N: And once again it has come, from my keyboard to your eyes, a series of 26 letters(and a few punctuations and misc) arranged in a form that makes words, sentences and paragraphs craftily designed to create mental images for your enjoyment!**

 **Hopefully. That's the goal anyway, enjoyment.**

 **If I was unsuccessful in this goal I implore, request, and outright demand you tell me about it.**

 **Please.**

 **If I** _ **was**_ **successful, well just the first two then. If you've the time and the inclination.**

 **Thanks muchly and now on with the…**

 **.**

 **KABUKI-BITS** **(/sound of the woodblock)**

 **.**

 **Democracy:** **Zuko is a monarchist and an aristocrat. I see the FN political process as just militant consensus building. People will argue with one another until they agree OR they decide to just fight about it. If it's important enough. This again is only if they occupy the same status, one does not argue with ones** _ **Lord**_ **in the FN.**

 **The Unicorn, by contrast, I see as being more intermittently elective. Chiefs are elected, but I doubt that they vote on everything. They are more close knit and probably less violent in their political process than the FN which is why voting makes sense to me. The social divide between the "aristocrats" of the Unicorn and the "peasantry" is probably close to non-existent. But then I doubt that Joe Shmoe is going to put himself up for chiefhood, the idea of place is still present and I think that unless they elected a tyrant you wouldn't have the social pressure to make anyone want to change the status quo too much.**

 **Again. I think too much about this crap.**

 **.**

 **Kabuki(disclaimer):** **SO here's your, after-the-fact, disclaimer. I know almost NOTHING about kabuki. Everything presented here is based on painstaking** _ **minutes**_ **(ok more like a few hours) of internet research. If YOU are an expert, or even a novice or journeymen you are, once again, cordially invited to tell me what I did wrong. I have tried to hedge my bets in this regard as I seeded that Azula produced the play in the "NEW" style which allowed for it to defy what is normally supposed to be kabuki. But again, if something was jarringly out of place or, gods forbid, insulting, drop me a line and let me know.**

 **.**

 **Azula and Art:** **Yes it should come as no surprise to anyone who's been reading consistently. Azula is NOT all burning villages and drowning puppies. She** _ **likes**_ **romances, I wonder if it wasn't one of the few things she felt she had in common with her mother. She, as I've said before, has a creative impulse that in deference to her duties as "Prodigy Princess" has been neglected until recently. Now when Pu-on Tim comes to her publisher for the rights to the screenplay she's gonna jump on that like white on rice. I have this delightful image of her sitting in on the players' first rehearsals, finding them** _ **lacking**_ **, and then… well being AZULA at them. "Do the tides command this play? No. It's me.** _ **I**_ **command this play."**

 **And I laugh.**

 **.**

 **Ty Lee; liberal arts major:** **Ty Lee is a member of the Ikoma family, in L5R this is the family of courtiers, lorekeepers and heralds of the Lion clan. Her uncle, Piandao, is the family head and the canon Piandao's zen and artistry in the face of combat was a PERFECT fit. Ty Lee herself, while educated as a Scorpion, was born into the traditionally artistic family and thus is a lover and understander of the various history and techniques involved in various art forms. She is also my education puppet, sharing with YOU the reader all the little details I discovered in my "exhaustive" research. Everything she says is, as far as I understand it, completely correct in the RW sense. If I got something wrong, please reference the 2** **nd** **bit.**

 **.**

 **Yue:** **Damnit is this sad. I mean we sort of lose sight of how frigging sad the Sokka/Yue thing is in the face of giant fish monsters, and Zhao being a dipshit, but still. Sad. I think Azula, who is, in a very repressed way, also depressed would latch on to the sad scenes and really capture them well. Obviously, it takes the Gaang by surprise, nobody was expecting any of this when they voted for some wacky time-wasting nonsense.**

 **.**

 **Ping:** **Ugggh. So much angst. I personally** _ **still**_ **have Ping related guilt and if** _ **I**_ **do, you have to know Zuko does as well. Grief takes time, and Zuko was not letting himself do any of that because of the reasons stated in text. Pride. Fear. Etc. Katara being the naturally caring and healing person homes in on that crap like a dowsing rod. "There will be EMOTIONS!" She declares. And so there were.**

 **.**

 **And THEN it was a musical:** **And then, because I am amused by the strangest things, Mai began to sing. And then because, in any situation, Zuko must be the most embarrassed one, his character began to sing too.**

 **I regret nothing.**

 **.**

 **Balcony kiss?:** **So I know a lot of you are wondering what happened exactly in this version of the most awkward scene in the series. Well, for one, they did NOT kiss. Aang is not 12 anymore, and while he made the mistake of going for it kiss-wise earlier, he is not stupid. He is in love with Katara, and in this conversation he will tell her that. She will be torn between being supportive of him, and making sure that he understands that it** _ **isn't**_ **happening. Aang will continued to try and let it GO, but as you likely know that sort of thing isn't easy. Even for Aang who has been** _ **trained**_ **for this.**

 **I really feel bad for him here.**

 **Not bad enough to EVER be a kataanger but, you know, to each their own.**

 **You also hopefully have noted that Aang is not being a sulky person in this version either. Yes, he is being made to look ridiculous in this play, but I for one found it odd at** _ **just**_ **how worked up he got in the canon episode. Probably the** _ **least**_ **monk like we've seen him. SO, I changed it. He is still confused by a lot of it, but, he is letting that slide. Just trying to enjoy the music, living in the moment, Buddhist monk style.**

 **As he** _ **should**_ **be.**

 **.**

 **Thanks again for reading! Remember to like/kudos/ blah blah blah. I need external validation blah blah blah.**

 **.**

 **.**

 **NEXT TIME on a very special "Avatar: The Last Dragon"...**

 **Zuko and company return to the fray.**

 **TUNE IN. New Zuko time, Same Zuko channel!**

 **Original post date: 7 April 2019**


	17. Another Return

**A/N: The Following is Rated E; for Explanations**

 **It corresponds, chronologically, with the beginning of the final episode S3E18-21 "Sozin's Comet."**

 **Reader discretion is still advised**

* * *

 **Chapter 17 "Another Return"**

* * *

 **Late Summer, Year 12 in the Reign of Fire-Lord Ozai**

Zuko had never really been a fan of vacations.

As a child he had been taught, by observation and explicit instruction, that his training, and its accompanying grueling effort, were of the utmost importance. As such, the royal family's annual trips to Ember Island had always been accompanied by confusion and no small feelings of guilt. With no tutors to endlessly drill him in the finer points of bending and kenjutsu, Zuko had often fallen to simply wandering around the Winter Palace and the beach that was its front yard trying to figure out what he was _supposed_ to be doing.

Which, in turn, made him feel even _more_ ashamed. As though it were a test that he was consistently failing. As though he should _know_ what to do.

Leaving the island and heading back to Otosan Uchi, on the other hand, had always felt like something of a relief. He was finally allowed to escape from the rigidity of dining room etiquette and the enforced tranquility required by close proximity to his honored grandmother. To _finally_ leave behind the hours of pointless wandering. Certainly, his training was tough, but the grinding pressure and barked instruction were far more familiar, far simpler, and infinitely more comfortable.

But now, in the twentieth year of his life, as he contemplated the palatial beach house, his toes halfway in the black volcanic sand of the beach and his arms clasped behind his back, his friends and allies moving back and forth from the partially loaded sky-bison behind him, much like the waves crashing on the beach, Zuko was certain that he felt something _other_ than relief.

… _Reluctance? …Sadness?_

 _Regret._

His perennial scowl deepened slightly as he contemplated the idea that he was actually going to _miss_ this place.

"You're completely packed?" Katara asked as she came up beside him.

"For several hours now," Zuko said, restraining an eye roll and not turning from his contemplation as Sokka lumbered past him with yet _another_ set of bags.

Katara laid her hand on his arm and he released it from behind his back and into her care without conscious thought.

"You alright?" she said, entwining her fingers in his again and looking up at him.

"…We will come back here," Zuko said after a moment. "You and I will… I mean… if… if you... want to."

"Of course we will. This place…" Katara gripped his hand tightly and leaned her head on his shoulder, "it's beautiful." She sighed and paused contemplatively for a moment before her eyebrows furrowed in thought. "…We're going to have to remember to do something about the roof though… and the dining room… and the color scheme."

Zuko snorted, shaking his head as she continued.

"…and Toph's room is an absolute _disaster area._ Maybe if we just- EEEP!"

She let out a surprised cry as Zuko, with a single fluid motion, turned and hoisted her bodily over his shoulder and began striding towards Appa.

"What are you DOING!?" She said, half annoyed half amused.

"Getting you out of here before you decide that we need to take up all the flooring as well," Zuko rumbled.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"' _ **Oh, thou art such a villain! Thou hast stolen more than my fortresses, but my heart as well!' Izanami said, her magnificent ebon hair loose and flowing in the breeze."**_

 _Ash and burning bones, why did I agree to read this again?_ Zuko thought to himself, rolling his lone eye, for what could have easily been the thousandth time since picking up "Love Amongst the Embers." He glanced over at Katara, who had fallen asleep in Appa's saddle on his right and was now leaning against a similarly napping Suki. He sighed, then turned his eye back to the monstrosity that continued to masquerade as the Fire-nation's oldest and most beloved epic.

" _ **'Verily, thou loverly wench! If only thy wit was as sharp as thy blade perchance thine fortresses would remain in thy care!' said Izanagi, his eyes gleaming bright as blades."**_

 _For the love of all our ancestors just… just KILL one another already!_

"' _ **I shall go then," Izanami said, her eyes locked on a point on the burning red horizon, "and verily shall I destroy those who call you Lord. Thus to free mine lands from thy vile and heartless tyranny!'**_

' _ **A villain I may be, but a heart do I have," said Izanagi, growling like a wild beast as he clutched her to his bare chest.'"**_

 _And NOW he's lost his shirt somewhere? Spirits preserve me._

"' _ **Mayhap I shall ne'er see thee again," Izanami breathed with a heavy sigh. 'Perchance I shall perish on the blades of thy miscreant band, my noble blood staining the soil with its perfect honor.'"**_

 _You… You just go ahead and do that._

"' _ **NO!' roared Izanagi his wine-colored orbs affixed upon hers. 'Never shall that come to pass! No one shall kill you but ME!'"**_

Zuko rolled his eye for the one thousand and first time and shook his head. _Honestly, how can anybody read this utter… wait a minute…_

"' _ **No one shall kill you but me,' Izanami whispered back in a breathless tone. Thus, their betrothal sealed, she tackled her villainous love to the earth and peeled him from his remaining clothes like-"**_

 _Oh… oh no. Oh shit! Shit shit shit! Katara read this?_ Zuko thought, a familiar panic settling on him as his eye darted back to her still sleeping form. _Oh shit-shit-shit-shit-shit-shit-SHIT!_

Suddenly the necklace tucked into his shirt seemed to weigh a million pounds once again as he contemplated the fact that the two of them, by longstanding Fire-Nation tradition, were technically betrothed to one another.

 _This… this is bad! I mean… not BAD, but… well… poorly timed? Maybe she doesn't remember? I mean if we're taking things slow… Damnit all to..._

Zuko's brain slowly worked its way down from a frenzy as his eye found Katara, her long brown hair drifting slightly in the light breeze that penetrated Appa's natural airbending. Still alarmingly beautiful… despite her head lolling back, her mouth wide open and her snoring not unlike the sound of a malfunctioning steam engine.

… _Ash with it. The very minute this war is over I'm asking her. Slow be damned._

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

The Sun was setting as Appa touched down, far more lightly than any creature his size had a right too, at Zuko's now mostly dried out war camp. He was almost immediately met by a team of now well-organized camp followers, who unloaded the party's luggage which had, in large part thanks to Sokka and Ty Lee's shared love of shopping, was actually larger than it had been when they had left. Rin, Haki, and Jee appeared in short order as well, bowing over their fists along with a few other general officers and giving brief status reports as they formally returned command of the army back over to Zuko. He in turn bowed, barked a few orders of his own and then, after a few less formal greetings, turned to find his belongings among those that had been unloaded.

He found them already being carried away by servants, and in their place, leaning against a lone hitching post in the middle distance, was Chief Shinjo Hakoda, icy blue eyes narrowed on Zuko, hands dragging a rather dangerous looking curved knife across a whetstone.

 _Ash. He knows,_ Zuko thought, stiffening slightly.

"Katara," Zuko said quietly, his eye still locked on Hakoda, "how angry are you going to be if I have to kill your father?"

Katara's head, which had been engaged in yet another muted conversation with Mai, whipped around as though it was on a swivel.

"What?! Why would you-" she cut off as she followed Zuko's one-eyed gaze towards her rather overtly murderous father. " _Oooh_ ," she said quietly, dragging the word out and wincing in an almost Sokka-like fashion.

In the sudden tense silence, the sound of Hakoda spitting on his whetstone, which he also managed to do in a malevolent manner, never breaking eye-contact, was quite loud. The continuous rasping of his gut knife against the stone was actually a pretty impressive piece of intimidation.

 _Truly a MASTER glowerer._

"Well," Katara said in a more normal tone, attempting to project unconcern for the homicidal intent radiating from her father, "obviously you are _not_ allowed to kill him. Not only would you lose any chance of gaining the allies we need, but then I would have to kill you as well… or maybe Sokka would?" She shrugged as though the idea was ridiculous. "Either way we'd have to break up, and that is unacceptable to me at this point. You'll just have to deal with it."

There was another long beat of tense silence, underscored by the sound of steel on whetstone.

"How angry would you be… if I have to _maim_ your father?" Zuko asked after a beat.

Katara just rolled her eyes. "No killing, maiming, imprisoning, or otherwise fighting with my father. Just... _talk._ All you have to do is _explain_ things to him. Think of this as…" she hummed in thought for a moment, " _training_. Training for future diplomatic engagements. I have every confidence in you." With that, she bobbed up on her toes and gave Zuko a peck on his unscarred cheek before turning away to begin supervising the group trying to remove Appa's saddle.

"Katara, you leave me alone with him, he's going to try and kill me," Zuko said quickly, breaking eye-contact as he turned to face her.

"I have EVERY confidence in you!" she said, not even turning around.

Zuko sighed and shook his head as he turned back to Hakoda. To his surprise, the Unicorn Chieftain had frozen in mid-sharpen, and the level of malevolence had dropped by a significant margin as his eyes roved from Zuko to his daughter and back again.

 _Well,_ Zuko thought, squaring his shoulders, _best get it over with._

And with that, he marched off into battle.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

 _It_ , however, would _not_ be gotten over with.

Zuko hadn't even been able to open his mouth, to try to begin to even _find_ a place to start "explaining" things, when another dour-faced water-tribesman, this one in sky-blue, appeared at Hakoda's side.

"In the name of the Crane, northern brothers of the Tribe of Water, I greet you," Chieftain Doji Arnook said, the subdued scowl on his face at stark contrast with the seeming politeness of his words. "We thank you for the hospitality of your camp," he continued, bowing slightly.

"Oh. Yes. Of course. You are very welcome," Zuko said, his eye flicking between the two darker-skinned chieftains and bowing back by pure reflex as his brain attempted to shift gears.

"The Spirits willing, the Tribes of Water will be pleased to begin negotiations tomorrow morning. Sometime after the morning meal, I should think," Arnook continued.

 _TRIBES of Water?_ Zuko thought in confusion, his eye darting back to Hakoda and finding the man once again glowering, but this time at his northern cousin. Zuko had been under the impression that he had already concluded his negotiations with the South.

"That… is fine?" Zuko managed to hedge his tone between a statement and a question. "But… I have some… _matters_ that I need to discuss with Lord Shinj-"

"Anything you have to say to Lord Shinjo, and to our sister tribe, you can say in front of me," Arnook insisted, not taking his eyes from Hakoda.

"I… would really rather-"

"It's fine, Prince Zuko. We can talk later," Hakoda said, also not taking his eyes from Arnook. "You must be tired from all your… _travels_." Something about the way he said "travels" made Zuko even more certain he had some idea of what had been going on between Zuko and his daughter while he had been away.

An idea that he was _not_ particularly happy about.

"Oh… Very well. Later then," Zuko said. While he was not best pleased that he couldn't fulfill his promise immediately, Zuko couldn't help but feel slightly relieved to put off a conversation that he was sure would, not only be extremely awkward, but also had a high chance of him ending up dead, dying, and/or castrated at the end of it.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

 _I don't care what Mai thinks,_ Zuko thought his lone eye focused on a cup of tea in his hands, _I'm getting a wider table._

After the return to the war camp and the discovery of _two_ angry Water-Tribe Chieftains in residence, Zuko discovered that, like many times before this, Mai had a plan prepared. Before he had even finished his brief, mildly confusing, initial conversation with the two of them, she had flown into a veritable frenzy of activity (albeit her standard calm and very dignified version of frenzy.) By the time Zuko made it to where his tent was being set up, an even larger meeting tent, the inside more decoratively arrayed than he would have thought possible given his previous military experience, had begun to be erected nearby. Ty Lee, who had placed herself in charge of the aesthetics of the operation, had later taken special pains to explain to him Mai's specific brilliance in everything from the placement of the tent to the size of the table.

The table, she had said, was key.

It was a small, if finely made, rectangular table of darker wood, the smaller ends of which, facing the entryway and the back of the tent, were just wide enough to accommodate one person comfortably. Zuko would sit at one end and Aang at the other. _Two_ people would have had to cram into one another's space, and thus common courtesy would naturally force Hakoda and Arnook to sit at the longer sides of the table, facing one another and not allowing either to gain any unconscious advantage by being able to "gang up" on Zuko. It was, as Ty Lee said, a stroke of genius and just the kind of subtle machination that the Scorpion Dojo excelled at.

It also, unfortunately, proved to be entirely unnecessary.

The first day of "negotiations" was entirely wasted. After tea ceremony, once again performed in an exemplary manner by Ty Lee, Arnook spent the entirety of the morning listing the many and varied grievances that the Water-Tribes, and the world at large, had with the Fire-Nation. While Zuko felt little to no guilt over most of the accusations, he _was_ forced to restrain wince after wince as Aang seemed to deflate at the listing of all the conflicts that he felt he was meant to have solved in his hundred-year absence. Hakoda remained silent throughout, cup of tea untouched before him, as Arnook droned on and on, beginning with territorial disputes that pre-dated the hundred-year-war, and ending with the Siege of the North… and the death of his only child.

That last left the tent in rather somber silence.

"You will forgive me, Prince Zuko, but I do not think I can continue further today," Arnook said, rising gracefully to his feet. "Lord Shinjo and I will retire, to hold conference with one another. We will resume tomorrow."

Then he remained standing there, only obliquely looking at Hakoda, but waiting for him to rise as well. Hakoda, lips pursed in seeming irritation, grabbed his tea, now cold, and slugged the entirety of it before rising, bowing, and departing with Arnook.

"Well… _that_ could have gone better," Zuko said massaging the bridge of his nose after both chieftains had left.

"Yeah. I'm really sorry, Zuko," Aang said eyes still downcast. "I should have… If I hadn't-"

"Neither of us can undo the past, Aang. We can only work with what we have."

"Yeah… Let me talk to Arnook," Aang said, a smile reappearing on his face as he bent himself to his feet with a gust of air. "I'm sure we can figure something out."

But that night Zuko found Aang in the camp's training circle, firebending his frustrations out and away. Zuko's silent question was met with a brief shake of the head.

Apparently the Avatar, last hope for peace in the world, had less sway with the dojo of the Crane that he had expected.

The second day of negotiations proved no more productive than the first.

Every suggestion Zuko or Aang made, Arnook seemed to object to. Every reference to Zuko and Hakoda's previous agreement was dismissed almost out of hand, or flatly ignored. Zuko became increasingly convinced that until Lord Doji's tribe was included in the arrangement somehow, everything previously negotiated was considered null and void by the northern chieftain. The only bright spot in the gloom was that Hakoda seemed as frustrated and annoyed as Zuko was.

Annoyed, but seemingly unable to do anything about it.

Zuko attempted to seek the man out afterward on that second day, not only to fulfill his promise to Katara, but to try and privately discuss the situation with him. The camp seemed even busier than he remembered it, a ringing sense of tension having fallen over it like a fog. Unicorn samurai in purple glared at blue-clad Crane who, in turn, stared daggers at the larger contingent of red and black Fire-Nation soldiers. Everywhere he went Zuko felt as though he was being watched, his position marked.

Given that, it came as no surprise at all that every time he sought out Hakoda he found Arnook there as well.

The third day dawned with Aang's absence, and with an argument.

After tea had been served, Hakoda finally broke his silence. He quietly outlined the arrangements he had made with Zuko and offered several suggestions as to how parity could be achieved with the North. Arnook, less subtly than before, dismissed this as irrelevant and suggested that, if the _Tribes_ were to act in concert they would have to negotiate in concert as well, without fear or _favor_ to one or the other.

Zuko sat silently as the two older men, first in calm and cold tones, then with raised voices, argued with one another over the matter of tribal sovereignty. It had the sound of an argument that had taken place already but had never been fully resolved. While it was never stated outright, it was now obvious Arnook believed that, as his tribe was the larger, it was the _superior_ tribe and should take the lead in everything from negotiation to governance. Hakoda, less subtly, was of the opinion that, as _his_ tribe had done the bulk of the fighting and suffering in the current war, they should receive the majority of the reparations and that they were in no way _subservient_ to the north.

Zuko barely got a word in edgewise as the two chieftains grew increasingly frustrated and increasingly strident in their arguments.

The day ended with _less_ than nothing accomplished.

Even Mai was at a loss to formulate a plan. In deference to the Crane's somewhat ridiculous belief that women had no place at the negotiating table, she had been secreting herself behind one of the painted screens at the back of the meeting tent. Even listening to everything, she admitted that she did not know enough about the Northern Water-Tribe to offer any concrete suggestions. As well, she had also thus far been thwarted in learning anything useful from those few Crane samurai that Arnook had brought with him.

It was however clear to her what Lord Doji actually wanted; the nullification of Zuko and Hakoda's previous agreement. He would not negotiate for the use of his, ostensibly larger and more valuable, waterbending forces without wiping the slate clean for the entirety of the Water-Tribes. While this might have been more practical, the North _was_ the larger and more powerful tribe, Zuko could not abandon his sworn agreement with Hakoda unless the other man agreed to it; something he would most certainly not do. In all honesty, Zuko did not want that either, despite Mai's protestations. Hakoda had fulfilled his end of the arrangement after all, and to abandon him now, allow him to be essentially cast to the wayside for a "better" deal, was not only disingenuous but dishonorable as well.

The fact that Katara would be rather cross with him was also a matter for concern, and so in deference to all those factors, Zuko both meditated and argued with Mai for most of that night, trying to find a solution.

The current day, the fourth day… was turning out to be a complete disaster.

Zuko had actually had rather high hopes when Sokka, normal cocky grin on his face, had entered the tent with his father. While Zuko was still at a loss to explain it objectively, the man had a way of diffusing tension and making things, if not necessarily _productive_ , then at least less tense and more entertaining.

Those hopes were quickly dashed however when Sokka's grin turned to a scowl at the sight of a square-chinned man who trailed into the tent behind Arnook.

The Crane Chieftain had apparently felt that, if Hakoda was bringing his son and heir, he should do so too.

So Arnook's adoptive son Kakita Hahn joined the negotiations…

…and somehow made everything _infinitely_ worse.

So now Zuko sat at one end of the low table sipping at his tea, the feeling of a slight headache brewing behind his mismatched eyes, contemplating furniture choices, as _all_ _four_ of the Water-Tribe samurai stood shouting themselves hoarse. Currently Hakoda and Arnook seemed to be debating whether hiding for the duration of the entire war constituted cowardice, while Sokka and Hahn argued about who _exactly_ was to blame for failing to protect Princess Yue.

And then, as bad situations always seemed to do in Zuko's presence, somehow things got _worse_.

"What in the FROST do you all think you are DOING?!" Katara shouted, storming around the painted screens at the back of the tent where Zuko, until that very moment, had thought only Mai was.

 _Oh ash,_ Zuko thought, restraining another wince in the sudden stunned silence.

"Sifu Katara," Arnook said, recovering quickly and tossing a polite bow her direction. "I apologize for the disturbance, but there are matters being discussed here that-"

"Are ENTIRELY irrelevant to the situation!" Katara said, cutting him off, her hands now on her hips. "I cannot _believe_ all of you! Here you stand, the leaders of our people, bickering over NOTHING while out there our enemies gather." She jabbed a finger at her father. "It does not _matter_ if Chief Arnook or his predecessors preferred defense over offense, they are here _now_." Her finger snapped to Arnook like a flag in a sudden change of wind. "And _you,_ Chief Arnook, have no right to claim we must be _unified_ in action! When my grandfather came to your father for aid and was turned away, you _lost_ that right." Her hand went back to her hip as she turned to lecture the group at large. "We are the Water-Tribe, the Moon and the Sea, the push and pull, the ones who adapt and persist… and yet you _sit here_ , squabbling like gulls over rotted fish as the yurt melts around you. We are _better_ than this. At least, I thought we were."

This was followed by a long silence, and three pairs of blue eyes on the ground in shame.

 _Wow,_ Zuko thought, fighting to keep his face impassive. _I should have brought her in here two days ag-_

"What is _she_ doing in here?" Hahn said cutting off Zuko's thought with a snort and a scoff.

"I am here because you idio-"

"Yeah, nobody gave you permission to talk," Hahn said dismissively. "Maybe you should take your opinions back to the women's hut and keep them there? Or, if it would be faster, maybe you just want to skip that step and go straight to _this_ one's tent?" he said indicating Zuko.

 _Oh… fuck,_ Zuko thought as the room froze once again into even more brittle stillness.

"Maybe that's how _your_ tribe conducts diplomacy," Hahn continued, seeming ignorant of the sudden look of horror Arnook shot his direction, "but we in the _North_ aren't just going to send our women to kneel down and suck this baby-burner's coc-"

He was cut off as Sokka lept over the table with a roar and socked him square in the jaw.

Amid the eruption of swearing and shouting… Zuko focused on his tea.

His uncle had always said that tea was a sublime mystery, a fusion of art and poetry to soothe the mind and bring peace to the spirit.

Zuko still wasn't quite certain about that, but he now found that by, focusing on the hot leaf juice, swilling the dark debris at the bottom of the cup as his hand shook with restrained rage, it certainly served as a distraction.

Something to focus on.

Something other than getting up and slaughtering _every_ Crane he could find, _starting_ with Kakita Hahn.

He took another sip and ignored the continued swearing and the sound of impacts as Sokka and Hahn continued tussling with one another on the floor of the tent. He instead contemplated three things; his tea, the feel of Katara's nervous hand on his shoulder in preemptive restraint, and the absolute fury boiling inside him.

It was remarkable. Not even a month ago he'd have almost certainly lit Hahn, Arnook, and likely a large part of the tent on fire at even a _hint_ of the insult that Hahn had just delivered. Now the rage still seared across his veins like acid, filling his vision with redness as the SONG roared in his ears… but without that _thing_ in his head, without it pouring further bile into his heart, he managed to simply sit in still rigid contemplation of his rage, Katara, and his tea, until the shouting was replaced by the heavy breathing of men still on the brink of violence once Hakoda and Arnook had managed to separate their heirs from one another.

"Doji. Arnook." The words ground out of Zuko like grist from a mill, filling the tent with a new humming tension. "How _dare_ you bring this… _creature_ into my camp."

"Prince Zuko… I regret that young Hahn has-"

"This… honorless creature has dishonored you, your Tribe, and your people as a whole," Zuko continued, barreling over Arnook's pathetic attempt of an excuse, his lone eye still fixed on his teacup as he spoke in a low growl. "You have insulted me, my people, my allies, my sworn battle-brother, and now, most importantly… the woman I love."

If silence could deafen, none of them would ever have been able to hear again.

"As such, I find you and yours _unacceptable_ as allies. I will fight this war, and I may die, but I will do so with honor. If… _this_ is the best you can find to lead your people after your passing… then we can find no common cause." With that, Zuko downed the remains of his tea and, after placing the empty cup on the table, rose to his feet, finally fixing the Crane Chieftain with his lone, now nearly glowing, yellow eye. "Go back to your city, Crane… and _hide_ ," he snarled. "Hide and _pray_ to the spirits that I… _never_ have any reason to see you again."

Arnook sighed slightly and bowed to Hakoda, Zuko, and Katara, managing to seem genuinely apologetic, before moving to exit the tent. Hahn rose to his feet as well and, after wiping a bit of blood from his broad jaw, moved to follow.

"Where do you think _you_ are going?" Zuko growled.

"Wha-" Hahn barely got a syllable out before Zuko, shedding Katara's hand and stepping forward in a long fluid stride, advanced and backhanded him so hard it took him right back off his feet again.

"I did not give _you_ permission to go ANYWHERE _,"_ Zuko said his voice rising to a roar as he stood over the shocked form of Kakita Hahn. "NO ONE offers such disrespect without consequence! At the edge of this camp you will find a blackened ring of dirt. I will see you there, with your sword, at sundown… unless you are as _cowardly_ as you are dishonorable."

With that, Zuko stalked out of the meeting tent past a wide-eyed Arnook.

Back to his tent, to meditate and prepare for a duel.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

As was now typical, Katara entered his tent not even a heartbeat behind him.

"Really, Zuko? We're not back a _week_ and already you're about to kill somebody for me? I thought we were past this! You can't solve everything…"

Zuko exhaled a long, nearly fire-laden, breath before turning to face her. She stood before him, hands on her hips, a radiantly beautiful, furious creature, with a worried frown on her face as she continued to rant at him.

"… it had to be done," he said simply, managing to squeeze the words in after she paused to take a breath.

" _Had_ to be? Zuko, I do NOT need you to fight my battles for me. I am perfectly capable-"

"Of course you are."

"He… he insulted _me!_ _I_ should be the one who… who…"

"He insulted everyone in that tent, myself included. I just got to him first." Zuko grinned slightly as he stepped closer to her. "If you want to _challenge_ somebody, you have to move faster than that."

Katara's mouth dropped open in surprise, but she still managed to retain a rather cross look in her eyes.

"Besides, of all the people in there," Zuko continued, "I am probably the best equipped to fight him in a formal duel."

"You don't think that _I_ can beat that frostbitten piece of slush?"

"On the battlefield? Without question. But this is a _duel_ , and he is not a bender. It will have to be _steel_ , Katara. And while you are much better at that than you once were…" he left the rest of the implication, that her martial skills were primarily defensive and thus less useful, unspoken.

Katara exhaled in a huff and her face transitioned to one that was less angry and more simply worried. "I don't like it."

Zuko snorted in amusement. "I noticed."

"It's stupid, and wasteful, and entirely counter-productive."

Zuko only nodded.

"I just wish…" She sighed again, seeming to deflate slightly. "I just wish we weren't fighting amongst ourselves when there's a real enemy to fight. This… this is all my fault. I should have never-"

"This is _not_ your fault," Zuko growled, taking her by the shoulders. "This is Lord _Doji's_ fault." Katara cocked her head to the side in a question and he continued. "He's been delaying the process ever since he got here, and while I doubt he intended for that… ash-stain of a creature to say… _that_ … provoking either myself or your father to violence would have allowed him to negotiate from an even greater position of strength. Or to simply leave, honorably, without committing to the conflict." Zuko snorted again in somewhat bitter mirth. "Unfortunately for him, he chose the wrong tool for the job."

They stood still for a moment, Katara's up-turned grey-blue eyes searching his face. "…are you going to kill him?"

"That is _generally_ what happens in a duel," Zuko growled, images of the many ugly and vengeful things he would like to do to Kakita Hahn dancing through his head.

"You… you can't just fight to first blood?" Katara asked, wincing as though she could see those thoughts written on his face.

"That… is permissible. But… Ash and bone, Katara. He… he called you…" Zuko ground his teeth as his eye fell to the ground. "He called you a _whore._ Right to your face. A month ago I would have probably burned him and Lord Doji alive, right there and then."

"But you didn't," Katara said softly, and her hand came up to cup his scarred face. "You didn't, and I'm glad."

Zuko, still slightly embarrassed at the inclination, closed his eye and leaned his mangled nerve-damaged face into her palm like an affectionate puppy, letting it rest there for a long time.

"…what do you want me to do?" he said eventually.

"I want… I just want you to remember that compassion is just as important as honor and duty, and that, although they might not agree, we are _all_ on the same side here. Ok?"

"…I will," Zuko said, and resting his hand on hers he pressed a kiss to her palm.

Katara beamed at him and seemed to be on the brink of saying something else… but the both of them froze at the sound of a clearing throat at the entrance to Zuko's tent. Zuko's eye snapped open to find Hakoda standing there, a half-contemplative, half-angry look on his weathered face as he stared at the two of them.

Katara turned her head, saw her father, and then turned a rather vibrant shade of puce. Head down and eyes on the ground, she quickly walked past her father and out of the tent. Both men watched her for a moment before Zuko turned to a still silently watching Hakoda.

"You know, she used to tell me everything," Hakoda said, still watching as she sped down the dirt track away from Zuko's tent. He slumped slightly as he said it, suddenly seeming much older. "She used to talk and talk and _talk_ , about every little thing that came into her head. What happened to that little girl?"

Zuko, who both had no answer, and assumed that the question was rhetorical, said nothing.

Eventually, Hakoda straightened up and turned back to Zuko, his eyes going hard, albeit not nearly as hard as they had been in days previous.

"You meant what you said? Back in the tent?"

"Yes."

"I meant the part about…"

"I love your daughter."

Hakoda sighed again and shook his head. "She… she is an adult… I suppose, she can make her own decisions. I'm just… disappointed. Why didn't… why didn't one of you _tell_ me? We might have avoided all of that in there had I known before I went north."

"I… well… our relationship has been… ah… turbulent," Zuko said, floundering in the face of _everything_ that had transpired between Katara and himself. "We weren't… before you left… I mean… before that… uh…"

"She seemed like she hated you," Hakoda offered. "I thought it was just because you're Fire-Nation. Her mother… This war has affected her, and me, very personally."

"I know and… I am sorry that… That sort of thing is not supposed to happen."

"And yet it does, and did." Hakoda's eyes grew hard again. "Tell me how you think you're going to solve it."

"Leading by example… and killing those who behave without honor."

"Well, I liked about half of that answer," Hakoda said with a frown.

"Criminals should receive justice, and I will not suffer the honorless to continue breathing. What Commander Jitsuyoteki did was both a crime and a stain on the honor of the Fire-Nation."

"Commander… Jitsuyoteki…" Hakoda said quietly, his eyebrows climbing up his forehead.

" _Former_ Commander."

"You… you know his _name?_ " Hakoda said, suddenly stepping closer, his ice-blue eyes going cold and flinty once again.

 _Oh damn. I suppose nobody told him that either._

"He… is dead. I killed him myself."

Hakoda's eyes went wide and, as though in a dream, his hand drifted to the collar of Zuko's uniform.

"Did… did it hurt?" his voice was still quiet, but now carried the rasping harshness of restrained fury.

"No." Zuko said it softly, immobile, his face wooden, ignoring the clenching fist at his collar.

"Why NOT!" Hakoda snarled, his fist tightening.

"Because your daughter offered him mercy."

Hakoda blinked and slowly his fist uncurled from Zuko's uniform.

"…Why?" he whispered seeming stunned.

"Because she is a far better person… than _either_ of us."

Hakoda's hand dropped to his side and he shuddered slightly as he took a step back.

"I suppose she is at that." He turned to leave but stopped in the entryway of Zuko's tent. "I don't know that I like you very much, Akodo Zuko."

Zuko only nodded.

"If you hurt her…"

"There is a line actually."

Hakoda turned all the way back around and cocked an eyebrow.

"There will be a rather long line of people after my life should I hurt her. You may negotiate with _them_ as to where you fall in it. I believe your son has a schedule."

Hakoda snorted and actually found a half-smile.

"…Try not to die in a few hours? If Katara kills that icehole over you, I'm pretty sure we're all screwed."

"I thank you for your concern," Zuko said and bowed.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

A circle of candles burned in the dimly lit tent, pulsing rhythmically in time with Zuko's breathing as he emptied his mind of distractions.

It was remarkable how much easier this was nowadays.

While it had not ended ideally, the ridiculous waste of time that had been "negotiations" was over, Zuko's promise to "explain" things to Hakoda was fulfilled, and, while he knew that he was unusual in this, the promise of a good fight had always had a steadying effect on him.

And this _would_ be a good fight it seemed.

After Hakoda had departed, but before he had begun his meditations, Sokka had slipped into the tent somewhat nervously.

"Ah… so… I'm sorry. About… all of this. I suppose that-"

"Is it a Unicorn custom to try and apologize for things that are not their fault, or just a Shinjo one?" Zuko asked, a hint of levity in his voice as he continued preparing the space for his upcoming meditation.

"Uh. Well. No. But, I really should have kept my head in there. Aang thought I'd do a better job than he'd been doing, but, well…. I really didn't do a good job of keeping things calm."

"True. But I have often found that calm is vastly overrated."

Sokka snorted at that and shook his head. "Really? I'd never have guessed," he said sarcastically.

There was a moment of silence as Zuko finished placing his candles.

"Was there something else?" Zuko asked. "While you are always welcome, it is my tradition to meditate alone before a duel."

"Well… yes. I… Look, Hahn is an idiot, but he's… he's a _Kakita._ You know that they-"

"Invented Iaijutsu," Zuko said quietly. "I know this."

"Hahn… he's an idiot," Sokka repeated a pensive frown on his face, "but he's pretty good. Fast. Arrogant about it, but fast. _Real_ fast."

Zuko nodded thoughtfully, the speed was an expected obstacle. Even after several generations of isolation the speed of the Kakita dueling school was still known, even in the Fire-Nation. But that Hahn was _also_ overconfident was useful information. Arrogance could always be used against an opponent.

"Anything else?" Zuko asked, head bowed slightly in thought.

"Yeah," Sokka said, his hand on his chin. "He used to do this thing… You know how, in most speedy-sword-slice moves, the blade is going to travel-" he moved his hand, miming drawing a sword from his belt and drawing a path in the air from Zuko's right hip to left shoulder- "like that? Well, he's got this move where, because he's so fast, he can go from top to bottom instead." He drew another arc, going from Zuko's right shoulder and down to his opposite hip. "I don't know if he'll go with that, but…"

"But it is something to keep in mind," Zuko said nodding slightly, then bowing. "I thank you, battle-brother."

Sokka grinned at him in response and Zuko, as was becoming usual, felt a matching grin appear on his own mangled face.

After a few more quiet words of caution, Sokka left, leaving Zuko to his meditations and contemplation of the upcoming duel.

He considered what he had seen of his opponent, of Kakita Hahn. The way he had walked, the way he had moved, the way he had spoken. There was a rhythm there, in his demeanor, in his way of being, and Zuko meditated on it for the few hours that remained to him before he would be fighting the man.

The flames of the candles surrounding him pulsed with his breathing, still in time with his heart, a thudding drumbeat, slow but powerful. He let his mind drift to the circle of blackened dirt at the edge of the war camp, fixing it, and his opponent, in focus.

There were momentary interruptions. Brief flashes as the words that Hahn had said, and had not managed to complete saying, flitted their way into the stillness of his mind. Images of Zuko's truly desired responses, Dragon's Breath consuming the fool as he screamed, a blade of fire sweeping up and carving him in half, he contemplated briefly, accepted, and then shoved down into the slowly growing red mass of animalistic fury at his very center.

Fury held in check. Fury carefully controlled. Fury forged into a weapon and honed to a razor's edge.

A weapon that would remain in its sheath. Undrawn until it was truly needed.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

The training circle was surrounded.

Had Zuko a mind to, he could have craned his head around to see the several hundred people that had turned up for his duel, a mix of reds and purples and sky-blues. Could have seen Toph tapping her foot, frustrated by the current inaction, could have seen Doji Arnook standing directly across from him, hands in his adjoining sleeves and a look of profound solemnity on his face, could have seen Aang bobbing up and down, torn between his desire to interfere, to bring peace without bloodshed, and his understanding that _now_ was most certainly not the time.

He could have seen Katara, intermittently looking cross, worried, and embarrassed, standing in between her identically stoic brother and father, her eyes either fixed on him or anywhere else, torn between concern and unfounded guilt at the whole situation.

Zuko could have seen all of this, but then he would not have been appropriately focused.

He would not have been Akodo Zuko.

For Zuko, in this moment, the only things that existed in the world were himself, Kakita Hahn, the katana at their sides, and the nearly infinite permutations of actions and reactions that those things could be involved in in the next few moments.

Iaijutsu was, to the uninformed outside observer, a rather simple-seeming affair. Two samurai would watch one another for a moment, standing not even three paces apart in a centered stance. Then, seemingly at the same moment, they would shift their stance, draw their swords, and strike. They would barely even have to take a step forward to do so, so close were they to one another.

Like a turtle-duck gliding along the surface of a still pond, most of the activity was beneath the surface.

That initial moment was one of silent calculation and a potent battle of wills, as much an artform as calligraphy or ikebana. The two samurai stared _into_ one another, assessing and assaulting one another's focus and morale with aggressive concentration and silent poise. Many iaijutsu duels even ended here in the initial assessment, without a single blade being drawn. All either of them had to do was dip forward in a bow, walk away, and the duel would be concluded. That person would be the loser of course, but both would be able to keep their lives and, for the most part, their honor intact.

But Zuko would have sooner cut out his only remaining eye than bow here, in essence agreeing that his Katara _was_ a whore.

And it seemed that, as Sokka had said, above all other things, Kakita Hahn was arrogant.

Zuko could have seen it even without Sokka's prompting but, forearmed with the knowledge, he was able to focus on the minutia instead. Even here, in a war camp of the Fire-Nation, his adoptive father staring balefully at the back of his head, Hahn expressed nothing but absolute confidence, his posture light, loose, and upright.

Sokka had also said that he had an unusual maneuver, that he would do a downward stroke, using his exceptional speed to make up for the extra time it would take to move his blade upwards, and thus be able to bypass any standard defensive measure that Zuko might have adopted.

But would he _use_ that maneuver?

If he knew that Sokka might have told Zuko about it, would he instead go for the simpler, faster, and no less deadly lower strike?

That would have been the safer, more conservative thing to do.

But Hahn was _arrogant_ , and it seemed to radiate out of his every pore.

The confidence of a man who thought he knew a secret that no one else knew.

As both men concluded their assessment, and neither had bowed, they both slid into the ready stance, left foot slightly back, hands on the hilts and scabbards of their katana.

Waiting. Watching. Wondering.

It was Hahn's thumb that truly settled things.

Typically, in a ready stance such as this, the thumb of the left hand, the one gripping the scabbard of the blade, would be tight, clenched, subtly pressing against the guard and easing the blade down and outwards, making it easier to draw.

But Hahn's thumb… was _loose._

Loose because he would be drawing the blade in the upward motion that Sokka had described.

Which, now that he knew about it, was _exactly_ what Zuko wanted him to do.

Iaijutsu was, by its very nature, fast. Too fast to make adjustments once the blades began to move. Too fast to make changes once committed. Too fast to even see the danger before it was too late.

Kakita Hahn was ready to strike from above. Akodo Zuko was ready for it.

The path was set. All that was left was to set things in motion.

There was absolute stillness on the dueling ground. The stillness of every storm in the world about to crash into one another. The momentary stillness of a tsunami cresting and blotting out the Sun above an unsuspecting village.

The stillness of the heart in between one beat and the next.

…and Zuko shattered that stillness, with a single harsh exhale from his nose.

The sound of it was minuscule, but nearly deafening for the two men locked in the silent battle of wills. They both flew into action, time seeming to slow to a crawl with the intensity of their focus.

Hahn was _fast._

His blade was all the way out of its sheath, rising past his ear like a hunting bird taking flight and descending in a downward arc toward Zuko before he even had his own blade halfway out of its sheath.

But that was fine. Expected.

It was fine because Zuko's first _real_ move had been to simply slide his right foot further right, moving the entire profile of his body to Hahn's left, the complete opposite of a normal response.

And so Hahn's sword… missed.

It blurred past Zuko's scarred face by the barest finger-width, rustling his short-cropped beard like a sudden ringing gust of wind. As it traveled past the half-way point of its arc Zuko's sword was finally clear of its own sheath and arcing its deadly way towards Hahn.

The last two inches of the blade, the sharpest and deadliest part of the weapon, finished its journey and slid through Hahn's broad chin without resistance, continuing upwards through his lower lip and finally arcing a significant fan of blood past his left ear.

That eternal stillness returned, brittle now, both men frozen in the final posture of their strikes, the only sound the miniscule drip of blood off the tip of Zuko's sword, impacting the ashy ground.

Atypically for such a duel, neither man had established whether this was meant to be a duel to the death, or simply to first blood. If either of them moved towards the other now the duel would resume, descending into a simple brawl, a fight to the death. So, now neither of them moved a muscle and for another moment a new stillness was born.

Born from Katara's request for compassion.

Zuko waited, still as a statue, single yellow eye locked on a widening blue pair, and left the decision, and the consequences of it, in the possession of one Kakita Hahn.

The little world, the one that only held the two of them, once again held its breath.

And then… whether it was simply a stunned reaction to the pain now blossoming in his face, or an act acknowledging his defeat…

Kakita Hahn took a step back.

And suddenly, with the ringing crash of a gong, that still quiet world that had once only contained two samurai evaporated, the setting Sun illuminating the silent looks of triumph on the faces of Zuko's allies and bitter disappointment on the faces of the few Crane in attendance.

Zuko flicked his sword to the side removing the few remaining drops of Hahn's blood from the tip and then rammed the blade home in its scabbard.

"Get _out_ of my camp," Zuko growled.

And with a look of utmost shock, Hahn did so, blood now streaming down his chin and soaking into his rapidly darkening kimono.

As Zuko turned around to leave the training circle, only barely managing to keep a grin from his face as he caught sight of a beaming Katara, he was caught up short by the sound of a throat being cleared.

"Prince Zuko, I, and all of the Crane, owe you a debt of gratitude," Arnook said, his voice pitched high and loud enough to be heard by all those gathered. "We thank you for your honor and your mercy." He bowed slightly.

Zuko, still half turned away, did not bow back. He simply stood motionless, his one eye narrowed and his near-perpetual scowl back in place.

"As well, the Crane must apologize to you, Sifu Katara," Arnook continued, turning slightly and bowing to Katara as well. "Young Hahn's words were… ill-mannered, and most unbecoming of a samurai."

Katara, seeming a touch surprised at both the admission and the sudden attention of the assembled crowd, stepped forward into the blackened circle of earth.

"Uh… Yes. _Very_ ill-mannered," she said.

"I must also apologize for myself as well. This is twice now that I have required your… intervention to see that which should be plain." Arnook bowed again, deeply this time from the waist.

 _Why is he doing this?_ Zuko thought as Katara bowed back somewhat hesitantly. _Why in front of everyone?_

"I have been told," Arnook continued, "that, while you were named a master by Sifu Pakku, you have not, as of yet, mastered the healing side of our arts as well. As such, if it pleases you, Master Healer Yugoda-" and here a stooped but smiling older woman stepped to the front of the crowd of blue-clad Crane and waved at Katara- "has requested that she be allowed to finish your training… here… among your… allies."

"Yes! Of course," Katara said happily, beaming and waving back at the woman.

"Master Yugoda is our greatest healer and teacher," Arnook continued, now speaking to Zuko directly. "As such, she cannot be parted from her students for overlong. I am told that they are at a delicate stage of their training and so, if it is acceptable to you, they should accompany her."

 _Wait… is he saying?_

"Our healers are our greatest and most treasured resource, Prince Zuko. As such, with your permission, I, as their chief, must stay and see to their protection, along with… a few honorable samurai. If…" and here Arnook's blue eyes seemed to bore into Zuko's, "that is _acceptable_ to you."

Zuko turned all the way around to face the older chieftain and finally bowed back.

"It is _most_ acceptable," Zuko said, only barely failing to restrain a grin.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Campfires burned with a remarkable intensity that night, seemingly made stronger and brighter by the sounds of revelry that filled the war camp.

Standard issue Fire-Nation military discipline had been given a brief holiday as the legionnaires, prompted by the Avatar himself, aided and abetted by their new Unicorn allies, and permitted by their commander, celebrated Zuko's victory and the successful completion of an alliance that they all knew raised the chances of their long-term survival from slim to middling.

Arnook, whether because he was ashamed of Hahn's words, or his subsequent defeat, had consented to acknowledge Zuko and Hakoda's previous agreement in full. He still refused to personally ally himself with the nation that was responsible for the death of his beloved daughter, but he was now willing to give Zuko, or more technically _Katara,_ half of what they wanted; a strong and dedicated medical core, as well as a small samurai contingent that would see to their protection.

As such, the camp, in the full knowledge of what a tremendous boon this was, was now in full celebration. Curfew was canceled and the sake rations had been doubled. After apologizing, pointlessly Zuko thought, and congratulating him on his, mostly, bloodless victory, Aang had leapt into the fray attempting, he said, to see if he could break his previous record forlargest number of Fire-Nation soldiers dancing at once.

And then the Unicorn had rolled out and assembled their drums.

The multitude of fires seemed to shudder and shake at the thunderous booms of the enormous wood and rhino-whaleskin o-daiko drums, and as the night carried on, and the sake stores steadily consumed, the celebration grew even more raucous. Even in this festival atmosphere, it had taken several hours, bottles of sake, and an impassioned, slightly slurred, appeal from Sokka regarding honor, to get Zuko on his feet and a pair of drumsticks in his hands.

And another pair in Hakoda's.

They had started slowly at first, both of them testing the other's skills, then passing a series of rhythms back and forth, eventually growing in speed, volume, and complexity until the two of them found that strange musical synchronicity that comes from shared skill and unified effort. The loud whoops of the Unicorn samurai, Sokka, Suki, Toph, Ty Lee, and a few of the more inebriated of Zuko's officers, pealed through the firelit dark, joining the revelry around them and driving the rhythm onward and upward.

Even with that remarkable shared focus Zuko almost lost his grip on the drumsticks when he caught a glimpse of grey-blue eyes glinting out of the shodowy dark, watching, an almost hungry look in the smile below them.

In hindsight, it was unsurprising really. The taiko drum was traditionally played shirtless after all and Zuko was nothing if not a fan of tradition.

Although it seemed like an eternity to him, Zuko quickly handed the drumsticks off to a reeling Sokka who, now several bottles in himself, insisted that he could "figure it out, well enough." With most of the attention now on Sokka's amusing, and very drunken, attempts to find any discernible rhythm Zuko had slipped away from the fire, now pursuing that pair of eyes, which wound their way through tents and other fires…

…Back to _his_ tent.

He finally caught her, no more than a dozen paces from their eventual goal.

"Missed… you," Zuko said in the fevered space between kisses. The two of them, in deference to the many and varied complications surrounding the war camp, had seen very little of one another in the last few days.

Katara did not respond with words but with a rather pleased sounding throaty chuckle, and by dragging him by the belt further towards and within Zuko's tent, pausing every few steps to kiss him rather vigorously.

It was a testament to how much they were enjoying themselves that it took the current inhabitant of Zuko's tent, a cup of sake in her hand and her boots on Zuko's writing desk, _two_ attempts, with increasingly loud throat clearing, to get their attention.

"So…" June the bounty hunter said, a wry smile on her pale face as Zuko and Katara froze mid-kiss, "I see you worked things out with your girlfriend."

There was only the briefest hesitation before Zuko lunged forward, attempting to put himself between Katara and the bounty-hunter with unknown intentions.

This was made rather problematic, and rather ridiculous looking, as Katara, for likely similar reasons, whipped water from her waterskins and attempted to do the exact same thing at nearly the same time. The two of them bumped into one another, several times, before settling into similar cautious postures, side by side.

"You two are just too precious," Jun said, leering at the two of them over her boots. "If I was here to fight, I wouldn't have announced myself, would I?"

Zuko and Katara eyed one another for moment before Katara spoke up.

"Then what are you doing here?" Katara asked, her still lightly flushed face turning downwards into a scowl.

"At the moment? Just enjoying the scenery," June said, her yellowish-brown colored eyes flicking to a still shirtless Zuko.

Zuko frowned and cocked his head to the side in puzzlement. The valley outside of Gaipan where they were currently camped was not best known for its scenery. Katara simply scowled more deeply and took another step, putting herself between Zuko's bare chest and the smirking woman now sipping at her sake cup.

"That, and delivering a message," June continued, shrugging unconcernedly. She downed her remaining sake, and settled her boots back on the floor before pulled out a sealed scroll from a pouch at her back.

"I had not thought you a messenger, Ms. Kinshoko," Zuko said, his one eyebrow rising in skepticism.

"And I hadn't thought to see a _Sengoku,_ but here we are, all expanding our comfort zones," June said with a small frown, tossing the scroll down on Zuko's desk where it landed with an odd thump.

"The sender?" Zuko asked, stepping around Katara and picking up the scroll.

June's frown deepened into a very real scowl.

"Your creepy grandpa."

* * *

 **A/N:** **…**

 **Guess who's back?**

 **Back again?**

 **Dappers BACK.**

 **Tag a friend.**

 **Well, so… it's been… a minute (/winces)**

 **In the ongoing study of writing and reading fanfiction my watchword has always been "learning." Learn the process, learn the style, learn (in some rudimentary way) about yourself. So NOW I at least have a greater understanding of why dead-fics are a thing.**

 **STOP IT. You're freaking out. This is NOT a dead-fic. Not even a zombie-fic.**

 **So, let's get too it shall we, that thing that I've been re-hearsing in my brain for… what 8 months maybe?**

 **I am so sorry.**

 **Pfew! Feel better already.**

 **I wish I had some sort of real tangible excuse for disappearing. That I got hit by a bus, or got married, or even that I just** _ **stopped**_ _ **liking**_ **writing. None of those, especially that last are true.**

 **I will now tell you a story, a** _ **true**_ **story. The story of how Dapper lost his groove.**

 **I, as you may recall (or read about in previous Author Notes) had finals week coming up. I needed to study, because, well DUH. I figured everything would be fine, sure I would be a whole month between posts, (we were supposed to be biweekly back then) but surely the summer vacation would prove no obstacle to my amazing hobby.**

 **And honestly, it wasn't.**

 **I just sat down at my computer and pulled up this chapter, which was already about 30-40% done and looked at it.**

 **And looked…**

 **And looooooked…**

 **And got** _ **nothing.**_

 **My muse, such as she is, was gone. My mojo stolen, my chutzpah vamoosed, my mania settled.**

" **Not a big deal," I said. "Come back tomorrow, and try again."**

 **So I did. To no great effect.**

 **I might have written 100 words that month. Just raw slamming my head into the keyboard of life. I was frustrated, as you should expect, and so said… "I'll come back to it later. Just let the dust settle. You'll get it back."**

 **And so** _ **months**_ **passed.**

 **I contemplated updating the series page, or publishing a "sorry this is taking so long" chapter, but rejected those. I'm not the one to get your hopes up and then dash them with excuses. If you would have preferred that, I apologise, but that just isn't the way I roll.**

" **So, what finally** _ **did**_ **do it?" you are likely asking.**

 **And so I'll tell you.**

 **It was** _ **you.**_

 **Yes you, right there, with the face.**

 **I do not say this in any attempt to engender commentary, but it was straight up comments and reviews that dragged my happy ass back to the keyboard.**

 **Which segues me nicely into phase 2 of the apologies. All those unanswered comments which are littering my inbox.**

 **Sorry about that too.**

 **I really LIKE answering comments and reviews and such. You may have noticed that. But I certainly wasn't going to do that when I** _ **knew**_ **I had nothing in the tank. I refuse to positively reinforce my own ineptitude.**

 **Anticipate THAT being rectified.**

 **I wish I could tell you exactly what combination of comments, music, and caffeine-induced mania it was that got me back on the wagon. I feel like if I can crack that, then all of lifes problems will be solved, by me, on the back of a napkin in the local eatery.**

 **So, that's the story. It isn't that good, but it's true. Which, I suppose, gives it a quality of its own.**

 **For those of you who forgive me… I've got something special for you…**

 **It'sssss….** **META-BITS**

 **ORBS:** **The brief snippets of "Love Amongst the Embers" is my nod to all those truly trashy romance novels out there,** _ **and**_ **a little dig at myself for all the cliched tropes I love to use. Calling eyes "orbs" seems to be one of those things that is a cliched "bad writing trope" here in the fan-fic-verse so I threw that in to. Because I like throwing things. In a very literal and figurative sense.**

 **Shovel/Knife talk:** **Hakoda really isn't the, "nobody touches my baby girl" kinda guy.** _ **However,**_ **he comes back to camp only to hear rumors, 3** **rd** **or 4** **th** **hand rumors, about all the** _ **noise**_ **that was coming from Zuko's tent for a few weeks. Hears that his daughter, who he was pretty sure hated Zuko more than anything else in the world, is now making loud** _ **noises**_ **with him. Reports are UNCLEAR, and now the blaggard has absconded with her to… NO ONE KNOWS.**

 **So yeah, he's in a murdering mood.**

 **Then he sees that Katara's, not only safe, but giving Zuko the same peck on the cheek that Kya used to give to him. He is confused, but now less murdery.**

 **So there's that.**

 **Katara and Mai:** **Now that Mai has reestablished her place in the celestial order that is the royal family, she has decided to address all those problems she mentioned 2 chapters (and 11 months in real time. Again, so sorry) ago. She is giving Katara the crash course in "here's how you survive when you're a queen." Katara, because she is not an idiot, is going to listen and adapt whatever Mai teaches her to suit her own needs. Expect to see those to kibitzing more and more in the background.**

 **The Crane Catastrophy:** **What** _ **is**_ **Arnook's deal? You likely ask yourself as you're reading this. So I, dutiful (if slightly absentee) author that I am explain.**

 **He wants the Fire-Nation to destroy itself.**

 **Yeah. Heavy shit.**

 **When Hakoda shows up in the North he, at first, basically just tells him to fuck off. Politely of course, but the message is the same. Hakoda, who knows how critical this is,** _ **refuses**_ **to fuck off, and after a few weeks of prodding Arnook sees an opportunity.**

 _ **Pretend**_ **to come to negotiate, get Zuko to nix the deal with Hakoda (proving that all foreigners are dishonorable and untrustworthy), then just leave. Thus leaving the rebels with nothing and eventually getting to watch Ozai kill his own son (which to Arnook at least is a pretty terrible thing.)**

 **Obviously, this doesn't work.**

 **So, to get himself out of it he instructs his heir, Hahn, to do the thing that Cranes do.**

 **Namely, insult someone subtly, act surprised when they react, then duel them.**

 **To the death if possible.**

 **The problem is that Katara, BAMF that she is, rolls out in front of him with the shouting. The same shouting that she used when Yue was around, and that Yue quietly agreed with.**

 **So he is embarrassed, and about to admit that he really can't give Zuko what he wants…**

 **When the time-bomb named Hahn goes off.**

 **Hahn is an idiot, he only learned the sword stuff and not the talking bits, so right when Arnook is about the apologize, says something** _ **really**_ **fucked up.**

 **You can imagine how ashamed Lord Doji is at that point which is why he sortof manipulates himself. Gives Zuko (really Katara) some of what they need to survive this.**

 **Honestly it's the least he could do.**

 **Hakoda and Kya:** **Honestly it's one of those travesties of this tale that more people don't get to react to things. Obviously, the Southern Raiders (which we all love) was only going to be about Katara. Sokka had to be left behind for narrative reasons, he already GOT his life-changing field trip.**

 **But nobody EVER tells Hakoda.**

 **You remember him? They guy who left his home behind to avenge his wife?**

 **What does HE think about that?**

 **I only regret that I don't examine it EVEN MORE closely.**

 **Duels:** **Flat out, Hahn is a better duelist than Zuko. He's faster, he's a non-bender so he never had to divide his attention between multiple disciplines. What we have here is what, I consider at least, to be the perfect illustration of why you can't be a one trick samurai.**

 **Zuko probably would have lost if not for Sokka.**

 **Hell he might have lost if Katara hadn't asked him to show compassion. Hahn might have easily rallied and then used his superior speed to great effect.**

 **So you need all the things (compassion, friends, good observation) to be a great samurai, which, I mean, come'on, Zuko is.**

 **He's the protagonist after all.**

 **State of the Fic:** **She is STILL not done.**

 **Yes, I am disappointed too.**

 **I had wanted to get the rest of it done before making my (semi-)triumphant return but only yesterday that same creeping bullshit "staring at my screen to no effect" happened.**

 **So, we're throwing things out there (you know how I love the throwing.)**

 **I am in first draft (means WILL be published soon) up to chapter 20.**

 **21 and 22 (and possibly 23) are in shambles still but, with any luck my muse will remain on site until I get them done.**

 **I have no publishing schedule in mind, I'm just going with the flow here. As soon as they're ready you'll get them.**

 **Should something happen know that it is not because I WANT to stop, I just have no control over my muse anymore. She's flighty. Currently trying to coax her back with good music AND by doing all this throwing.**

 **My baby loves the throwing**

 **Thanks for reading. Again and again and again.**

 **.**

 **.**

 **NEXT TIME on a very special "Avatar: The Last Dragon"...**

 **Zuko meets exciting new people and DOESN'T kill them.**

 **TUNE IN. Who knows what Zuko time, but same Zuko channel!**

 **Original post date: 8 Feb 2020**


	18. The Road to Ba Sing Se

**A/N: The Following is rated R; for Reconciliation**

 **It contains dialog, where appropriate, from the final episode S3E18-21 "Sozin's Comet."**

 **Reader discretion is advised.**

* * *

Chapter 18: The Road to Ba Sing Se

* * *

 **Early Autumn, Year 12 in the reign of Fire-Lord Ozai**

It was an enormous sound. Nearly fifty-thousand pairs of boots hitting the ground at the same time.

It was less the sound of a single giant footstep and more the sound of an entire stormfront's worth of rain, crashing down to earth in a series of rhythmic concentrated beats. A thunderous cacophony of boots and ostrich-horse claws and drums, underlaid with the intermittent shouts of sergeants, all of it focused on a single purpose.

The east.

The march to Ba Sing Se.

From the ground, from the inside of the beast, Zuko's legion resembled nothing so much as a mass migration of peoples. A messy dust-choked affair of armor and banners, spears and wagons and grim-faced soldiers, its coming presaged by the floating tonnage of Appa the Sky-Bison and behind it, shading the middle of the formation, the enormous oval of the lone airship floating above.

From the bridge of that airship _,_ however, it was an entirely different animal.

When viewed from above, the marching legion looked like a strange black serpent, snaking its ponderous way along the northern bank of the Hebi river, speckled with irregular silver and white scales. Silver where the Sun illuminated spearpoints and white where the rebel forces had lacquered their armor, or simply tied white bands of cloth around their helmets, lances, and forearms, to clearly denote the difference between themselves and the standard armor of their loyalist brethren. Not only would these decorations hopefully serve to keep confusion and friendly casualties to a minimum, they also served as a powerful reminder of the consequences of failure.

In the Fire-Nation white was the color of death, and every member of Zuko's legion, samurai, bushi, and peasant alike, were prepared for that outcome.

Zuko himself flitted from place to place as the Legion marched on. He rode at its head, he and Aang scouted the upcoming terrain for potential threats on Appa, he even marched on foot occasionally, as a reminder to his men, and to himself, that he had not forgotten his roots as a commander of footsoldiers.

But in all honesty, in the privacy of his own head at least, he admitted he preferred the view from the observation deck of _The Princess_ _Yue_ which, every passing day of the march, grew more and more purple.

It had been part of his agreement with Hakoda that half of any captured airships, starting with this first one, were the sole property of the Unicorn. Every day the truth of that became more and more clear as Hakoda's soldiers, having been liberated for the Prison at Shadow's Keep by the now openly rebelling Matsu clan, clambered over the sides of the dirigible, covering the plain grey and crimson of Fire-Nation construction with paints and fabrics in the purple and white of the Southern Water-Tribe, configured in a strange mottled pattern, that was typical of the sails of Unicorn ships. Sokka explained that it was both tactically important, helping the airship blend into the sky behind it, as well as proving Zuko's sincerity in his agreement with Sokka's tribe.

The Southern Water-Tribe would be _visibly_ present wherever the legion went.

It would be a long road to Ba Sing Se, even with an army as mobile as Zuko had worked to make this one. This many people, along with their supply train could only move so fast. Luckily, the limited preliminary scouting reports suggested that there weren't any enemy forces either large enough or fast enough to truly oppose them yet. Despite this, Zuko knew it would be an incredibly busy time, organization, recruitment, and, hopefully, alliance building would consume most of his waking hours as the rebel force marched eastward through what was still properly the Earth-Kingdom.

Marched on, to their death, or their eventual victory.

Both of which, to the samurai of the Fire-Nation, were honorable outcomes.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"So, explain to me exactly _why_ we're doing this again?" Katara asked, the frown on her face more for the intermittent dusty winds from the south and for the ostrich-horse she rode alongside Zuko with _less_ than a great deal of confidence.

"I am to be _seen_ leading the army," Zuko said from atop his own mount. "'A good leader leads his people from the heights. A _great_ leader leads his people from _within_ them,' Akodo said. _You_ are here… because you enjoy my company." He grinned as he finished, inflecting his last as an almost sardonic question.

"Yes, I suppose that, for some bizarre reason I do," Katara said, flicking her reigns to the side to absolutely _no_ effect. "What I meant was, why are spending, you said _three months,_ making this trip? I practically had to pry your fingers off the tiller to make you leave the colonies the last time. You aren't concerned with your father attacking them?"

"I am," Zuko said, his grin disappearing instantly. "This is why I left the colonial houses behind, to secure their homes and keep an eye on the sea. With any luck, the few naval groups that have joined us, combined with the Matsu massing on the homeland should make any attempt at crossing… problematic."

"But the airships…"

"Are an unknown element," Zuko said scowl deepening. "I do not know their full capabilities nor how they will be utilized by the remaining generals of the War College." He paused for a moment, thinking as they rode along. "…This _is_ a risk. But a worthwhile one, I think. I need the earthers on my side."

"And you think marching across their lands is a good way to go about that?" Katara said cocking an eyebrow at him.

"Well, as they have not responded to any of my _written_ entreaties, perhaps close-range engagement will give them something to consider. Show them I am serious in my intentions."

"Yes. Ok. But… Ba Sing Se? Again? Last time I asked one, the earthers were pretty touchy about you and that city."

"I had _hoped_ to simply return the city to the Earth-King as an offer of goodwill once I wrested the throne from my father, but now… that seems _unlikely_ without personal intervention."

In the few weeks before Zuko and Azula had left the great walled city to journey back to the Fire-Nation, they had appointed one General Seizuka Shin the military governor of their nation's newest outpost. All reports from the occupying forces after they left had seemed as orderly as they could be given the situation.

Then, about a week and a half after Zuko had declared Sengoku, General Seizuka had revealed previously unknown personal ambitions and declared himself the "King" of Ba Sing Se and its surrounding lands, much to _everyone's_ consternation.

"And here I thought the Fire-Nation didn't _do_ Kings?" Katara asked wryly.

"We _don't,_ " Zuko said with a growl. "A fact I look forward to reminding _General_ Seizuka of." He snorted and shook his head in somewhat bitter mirth. "But, in the interim, we will march along the Hebi river, spreading word of our intentions and our mission. With any luck, we will pick up another half-battalion or two of dispossessed earth samurai, perhaps some ronin and local scouts as well. If we are to be successful, every hand will be needed."

"And this has nothing to do with the letter that… _woman_ brought you?" Katara asked craning her head over her shoulder to glare at June who was mounted on her shirshu Nyla a few ranks back, chatting with an intrigued looking Toph and a Sokka who, his girlfriend on his other side, looked anywhere but _directly_ at the attractive bounty hunter.

"…My uncle is in Ba Sing Se," Zuko said quietly, his own eye locked on the eastern horizon.

"Zuko…" Katara's face and tone shifting back to her more normal concern as she turned back to him. "I know you want to see him… but…"

"You think that it is my primary motivation."

"I just worry it might be… coloring your decisions, yes. If he wanted to talk to you why didn't he just come _here_?"

"That I cannot say," Zuko said with another frown. "His letters are just as annoyingly cryptic as he is in person. What I am supposed to make of _this_ -" Zuko fished out the Pai Sho tile that had been included in the brief and, as he had said, annoyingly cryptic scroll that June had delivered- "I have no idea."

"You're… sure it's from him? Not some kind of trap?"

Zuko glanced at her askance for a moment before a small smile forced its way through his normal scowl.

"I am glad you and Mai are getting along now."

"Not the point, and not an answer," Katara said maintaining her composure despite the small flush appearing at her cheeks.

"Yes, I am sure," Zuko said holding the white lotus tile up to the light, examining it again, for perhaps the one-hundredth time. "After all," he said quietly, his eye narrowed, "he 'had it up his sleeve the whole time.'"

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

The ronin were a motley bunch.

In any conflict such as this Sengoku, Ronin were bound to appear. As surely as day followed night, or vulture-wasps swarmed carrion, the masterless samurai would flock to any banner that they felt had the potential to feed, arm, and pay them.

It was how they survived after all.

As well as those more basic concerns, any conflict of nearly any magnitude had the opportunity for promotion. A heroic deed here, a life saved there, could see their fortunes reversed in the most powerful of ways. While the odds were slim, _any_ chance to acquit themselves with honor, to climb out of their disreputable state and into the ranks of real samurai was a chance that any ronin would leap into a volcano to grasp. As such, there were already over a dozen firebending ronin, and fifty times that number of their non-bending brethren, among the ranks of Zuko's army, all of them carefully watched and led by trusted full samurai.

The problem with the particular group of ronin in front of him was not that they were necessarily any more or less trustworthy than any of the others…

…The problem was that they were all earthbenders.

They stood in ragged rows for Zuko's inspection, all of them displaying a wide disparity of arms, armor, height, and disposition. Some of them conversed quietly, or not so quietly with one another. Others stood silent, at an exceptionally rigid position of attention as if hoping that this might somehow set them apart from their fellows. Despite Zuko's personal experience, and sympathy, with their situation, one of the reasons they were even there in the first place, Zuko currently was eyeing them all somewhat mistrustfully.

 _Something is… off here,_ he thought to himself, his one eye glaring at the group.

It was just a feeling that he had, a sensation akin to somebody lying to his face, or as if there was something right in front of his eye that he was just barely missing.

 _Azula_ did _turn the Dai Li… and she is not beyond sending one out here._

The thought made his palms itch with the tingle of suppressed firebending.

He admitted that it might be a simple miscue of his ever-present paranoia, which had been once again reinforced in the previous months by that quick succession of assassination attempts. But as Mai was always quick to point out "just because you know you are paranoid doesn't mean that somebody ISN'T out to get you."

No matter that he was in the very middle of his rapidly assembling nighttime camp, surrounded on all sides by soldiers he knew were loyal. No matter that this might actually be the safest place in the world for him at the moment.

Largely because Beifong Toph, who stood on his left, was nearly impossible to surprise, and was well known to take a great deal of pleasure in crushing people who tried to kill her friends.

"Yeah. From what I can tell most of these fucking idiots aren't worth the dirt between my toes," that same minuscule earthbender huffed, her pinky digging in her ear. "Most of them are standing like an airbender with a tummy-ache."

"Fair enough, but every hand is needed," Zuko said, his one eye still scanning through them, still hunting for whatever it was that was making his palms itch. "…But, if you do not want them…"

"What the spit does it matter what _I_ want? It's _your_ fucking army."

"Yes, but… we- _I_ had hoped…"

He trailed away for a moment, considering appropriate word choice.

"Just spit it out, Sparky," Toph said with a snort that somehow managed to combine amusement and irritation in equal parts.

"…One of the highest honors and most solemn duties of a samurai is command," Zuko said slowly, as though his words were creeping up on an enemy encampment. "I had _thought_ that, perhaps, the greatest earthbender in the world… might want some soldiers of her own."

Toph blinked for a moment of absolute shock, a truly rare occurrence for her. "Me? Command? You think anyone is going to listen to _me?_ "

"Odd," Zuko said, now with a snort of his own. "I was under the impression that you _liked_ beating the ash out of people. Especially people who think you are too small to be of consequence. If you can train Togashi Aang, then I believe you can train anyone. Even airbenders with gastric problems… _Captain_ Beifong."

"Oooh… Oh, I _like_ that," Toph said, an exceptionally evil-looking grin slowly appearing on her face. "Captain _motherfucking_ Beifong."

"So, do you want them, or not?"

"Yeah… yeah, I can do something with them," Toph said, hurriedly nodding her head in acceptance. "Raw iron to steel, blah-blah-blah. There's even a couple in the back I can already vouch for personally."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. Hold on. HEY! DICKHEADS! STOP TRYING TO HIDE FROM ME!" she shouted, pitching her somewhat piercing voice into a nearly acceptable impression of many of Zuko's company sergeants.

Zuko, half-amused as always with Toph's antics, managed to restrain a smirk as three of the earth-ronin that had been trying to remain inconspicuous near the back of the formation winced at Toph's shouting. All eyes turned to them as they embarrassedly ambled their way forward past the rest of the formation.

"Prince Sparky, say hello to my former co-workers; The Headhunter, The Gopher, and-"

"Fire-Nation Man," Zuko finished, his eye settling on the still slightly rotund barrel-chested man who seemed to be trying to hide behind his much thinner compatriots.

 _At what point is it appropriate to ask him to sign my sake cup, do you think?_ Zuko thought musingly.

"Well, I can say for certain that these three morons can at least bend," Toph said with a shrug, loud enough for the other ronin to either glare or stiffen even more. "If the rest of them are even half as good, then I'll take the lot."

"You're… not still mad at us?" the one called The Headhunter asked skeptically.

"Nah. You were dumb. Got greedy. I kicked your asses. Dust under the carpet," Toph said with another shrug. "Although… where the hell were you idiots during the eclipse? I mean, it turned out _badly,_ but you kinda fucking let The Hippo and The Pebble down."

"Shan and I heard about it too late," the Gecko said with a shrug of his own. "And obviously Ren here wasn't going to… uh…" his eyes flicked from Fire-Nation Man to Zuko briefly- "well… he didn't hear either," he finished.

"Just as well," Zuko said offhandedly, his eye still on Fire-Nation Man. The mild impulse to get his souvenir cup had been forgotten in the face of there being something… off about the man that he couldn't place. It was the same wrongness that seemed to infest the group at large and as Zuko examined the man he seemed to grow more and more nervous.

"Alright," Toph said, grinning evilly, seeming unbothered by whatever it was that was making alarm gongs ring in Zuko's head. " _Now_ comes the part where I kick your asses, _then_ you kick _their_ asses." She pointed to the now somewhat nervously milling crowd. "It's the only real way to see who's who and what's-"

She was cut off by a sharp intake of breath from behind them and Zuko turned to find an extremely pale Colonel Uesugi Rin, eyes wide and staring at Fire-Nation Man.

"Ren?"

"Is there a problem, Colonel?" Zuko asked, his eye widening in surprise at the largest display of emotion he'd ever seen from the man, then darting back to Fire-Nation Man.

Who he now found collapsed on the ground, his forehead in the dirt, in full kowtow.

 _What in the… Earthers don't bow like that._

A full _Fire-Nation_ kowtow.

Zuko blinked in surprise and then noticed with some dismay that a full third of the assembled earthbending ronin were in the same position, the others staring at them in confusion.

"I… apologize, Highness," Rin said hoarsely. "I… I must have… I… mistook this man for… I… I once had a younger brother named Ren. But he… he was… lost."

"Lost," Zuko said flatly.

"Yes, Highness."

It was an ancient law, the Rule of Abrogation. Set, for lack of a better word, in stone in ages past. Earthbenders could not be Fire-Nationals. No more than firebenders could be Air-Nomads or Water-Tribesmen. The four nations were separate, distinct. Four elements, four nations. That was the way it was, the way it had _always_ been. Everyone knew that, and children of the Fire-Nation colonies who were "born to the stone" as it was still called were no exception.

They did not die. They simply left. Were exiled. On pain of death. They were just… lost.

 _Earthbenders CANNOT be Fire-Nation soldiers. Damnit. Everyone knows that, why in the Ash did they come here?_

It was simply the way things _were._ Immutable and static.

… _Does that mean waterbenders can't be Fire-Nationals either?_

And just like that, a decision was made.

"This is… unacceptable to me, Colonel," Zuko said coldly.

"Yes, sir," Rin said, bowing at the waist and remaining there.

"I had thought your family better than this," Zuko continued.

"Yes, sir." Rin's bow deepened.

"Why is your… brother not armed appropriately?"

"I regret that… what?" Rin was so shocked he jerked up out of his bow and only barely managed to not overbalance.

"We… we fight this war to reclaim our honor," Zuko said, his tone soft but loud enough to be heard by the assembled crowd. "We fight to free ourselves from those who would kill, simply for the element one bends. If we are to have victory, true victory… we must be better than them." He turned and looked down at the man he had previously only known as an earth-rumbler with a bad fake accent. "Uesugi Ren?"

Fire-Nation Man raised his head out of the dirt, bright gold-green eyes wide with a mix of shock and awe.

"I have heard that you were lost," Zuko said quietly. "I am pleased to see that you have found your way back. Welcome home."

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"Absolutely not," Zuko said, trying, hoping against hope really, that his tone spoke of finality.

"Zuko… you're being ridiculous," Katara said, seeming torn between anger and incredulity.

"I have no need for any more scouts. Especially not ones of… questionable honor."

Zuko was not certain exactly how the conversation had arrived at this destination. Generally speaking when he and Katara discussed something having to do with the Legion they were minor points of clarification. What was the term for a group of archers? Why did an ostrich-horse rider need a different type of boot than an infantryman? Why did they need all those shovels? These were the types of questions Zuko was used to fielding, and, on the whole, he had found that Katara had an interesting and unique perspective on military tactics that, while not always wholly accurate, was still well-thought-out and was capable of inspiring new avenues of thought as he found the words to explain things to her.

Personnel choices had never been touched upon, and Zuko found himself floundering.

Also, when discussing military topics, they were usually both _fully clothed_.

Unlike now.

"They aren't bad people, Zuko," Katara said, hoisting herself up on one arm, their shared blanket slipping down as she glared at him beadily. "They know this area really well. Just because they _used_ to work with-"

"That honorless ash-hole?"

"- _Jet_ ," Katara finished before changing tactics. "What about the Duke? You think he doesn't want to see his friends again?"

"I think that _Koshaku_ is better off without 'friends' who will probably try to murder him for being a firebender."

"They're not going to-"

"I just don't see the need, Katara. We already have plenty of-"

"I'm pretty sure I've heard someone around here say that we'd need every soldier, every hand we could get, if we were going to have a chance of winning this thing?"

"That's not… not the point."

"It's very much _is_ the point," Katara snapped. "Smellerbee and Longshot were born in the colonies too, and that makes them _your_ people just as much as all those earth ronin you talked Toph into adopting."

"I gave her _thirty_ benders. I never expected her to appropriate every single-"

"Don't change the subject," Katara said cutting off the digression before it could even start. "Give me one, just _one_ , _good_ reason why we can't give them a job."

There was a long pause in the flickering shadows of Zuko's tent.

"I…" Zuko's jaw worked soundlessly as he scrambled to find a reason she would accept as _good_.

"You don't have one, do you?"

Zuko only growled.

"So, I'll just tell them to report to the quartermaster tomorrow then, shall I?"

 _She didn't even know what that flaming word MEANT yesterday._

"Katara," Zuko said aloud, trying to rally once more, "they are NOT-"

"Jet is _dead_ , Zuko," Katara said as she plopped back down on her half of the bedroll, her back to Zuko and her posture still angry. "And we _do_ need every hand."

There was a moment of silence.

"Mai-" Zuko started.

"-will be watching them," Katara finished, not turning around. "We've already discussed it."

Zuko exhaled slowly, a hairs-breadth away from a groan. With a gesture, he banished the single candle he had lit when Katara had broached the subject and lay on his back scowling at the tent roof.

"…Fine. Just… fine," he said eventually.

Katara, displaying her normal agility, flipped over, wordlessly pecked him on the cheek, and then returned to her original position, her posture now far more relaxed. Zuko exhaled again, rolled over and, face burrowed into Katara's unbound hair, tried to find sleep.

That, at least, he was successful at.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Zuko was reasonably certain that his mother would have been disappointed with him.

There were all sorts of little saying that she had peppered Zuko and Azula's lives with concerning courtesy. Things that, had she been there, she likely would have whispered to him in this situation. "Never judge a scroll by its ribbon," was one. "Honor and goodness are invisible to the eyes," was another.

But despite all of that, Zuko admitted that, based on appearances alone, he _really_ didn't like the soft-looking little man in front of him that had, with all the bluster of one of the frequent autumn storms, made his way into Zuko's camp.

While his long mustaches were traditional for the Earth-Kingdom, and Zuko was normally a fan of tradition, they didn't seem to fit his rather doughy face. His ornate golden cap, with its embossed stylized wings, was incredibly ostentatious. The way he had visibly had to restrain a sneer at the simple floormat where he now sat in front of Zuko. All of these things made Zuko's single brow furrow more and more in his own particular flavor of disdain and anger.

There was also the fact that this little ash-stain of a man seemed to be hinting that he could _buy_ a samurai. One of Zuko's soldiers. One of his _friends._

Yet another _sister_ that he'd never expected to have.

"These times _are_ expensive ones, as I am sure you know," Beifong Lao said, idly wafting the scent of the tea he had been served, restraining yet another a grimace as he did so. "War is surely the most dangerous and costly of activities, not only in gold you understand, but in disrupted trade as well."

Zuko, who had for several months been running the treasury department for the most powerful nation on the planet, and thus knew damn well how trade worked, said nothing, but sipped at his tea. His mismatched eyes remained on the little man before him as he allowed the silence to do the talking for him.

"Yes… well," Lao continued, attempting to project unconcern for what even _he_ could sense was tension, "given your… _honorable_ intentions, I would be more than happy to supply your army with… a decent amount of gold."

Despite Lao's efforts, Zuko could practically _smell_ the disdain in his voice when he said "honor," and, his teeth gritted behind closed lips, he did his best to keep his rage focused on his tea even as his single yellow eye remained locked on the man across from him.

"Enough gold to see you through a good portion of this conflict," Lao continued. "Certainly more than enough to make up for any… _loss_ you might _think_ you would be incurring."

 _"A samurai is courteous even to his enemies. Without this outward show of respect, we are nothing more than animals. A samurai is not only respected for his strength in battle, but also by his dealings with other men. The true inner strength of a samurai becomes apparent during difficult times,"_ Zuko thought, quoting Akodo in his mind as his eye went back to his teacup and focused on the way the dregs of his hot leaf juice swirled in a pattern like falling leaves.

And NOT on how much he wanted to throw this pestilential little zeni-counter out of his presence.

OR to set him on fire.

"There is also the matter of you flying the winged boar," Lao continued, seeming ignorant of how close to a fiery death he was as he abandoned his own teacup with a final barely concealed sniff of disdain. "While we must admit that that was rather presumptuous of you, I am willing to let that stand as well. I hope that whatever… _mercenaries_ you attracted with it are both skillful and loyal."

There had been mercenaries of course. Once Toph had been persuaded to hoist what was _legitimately_ her family's mon to her rapidly growing contingent of earthbenders, the number of earthers who had submitted themselves to Zuko's recruiters had very nearly doubled. However, the general consensus was that they came because they had all learned that it was a Beifong who was both the Earth Rumble Champion of Gaoling _and_ the world's first-ever metalbender, not because they believed they would be paid more.

A fact which her own father, with his ridiculous mustaches, seemed happy to ignore along with all the rest of the facts that made Toph who she was.

"Given the circumstances," Lao continued, "I am more than happy to let the implication, that House Beifong stands with you, be a reality. You will have funding, the support of my fleet, and my contacts. Surely that is worth any meager help my daughter might provide."

Zuko, his face still set in a scowl, exhaled a long breath.

 _Mai will be upset with me if I don't even consider it._

And so, because it was polite to do so, he did.

For the space of a half-heartbeat. Then he took a sip of tea.

 _Nope. No serenity. Still just hot leaf juice._

"Colonel. Beifong," Zuko barked, making Lao start his mustaches quivering.

"Colonel?" the little man asked, managing to combine confusion with condescension. "Prince Zuko, I have never served a day in my entire-" he cut himself off, his eyes going wide as Toph brushed aside the tent flaps and strode into the room.

Zuko, often without prompting, happily admitted that he was not in any way a connoisseur of aesthetics or style. Despite that, even he had to admit that he was both pleased and impressed by the display that had been managed for Toph. She wore a scaled-down copy of what was quickly becoming the standard officer's armor for Zuko's legion, a less ornate version of the dark armor that Zuko had been given by his sister. Matte black where Zuko's was glossy, and plain white-lacquer where Zuko's was silver. The bracers themselves were actually a series of interlocked iron bands, and Toph and only recently taken a great deal of pride in showing them off in her metalbending demonstrations, bending them out as extraordinarily dangerous projectiles capable of shredding all but the thickest of armors with little effort.

In deference to her new rank, as well as the fact that she cared little for any ostentation she could not see, the only ornamentation she wore was the flying raven-hawk pin of a full colonel at her collar. That rank had only seemed appropriate given the fact that, as every earther that joined of late wanted to serve under the Earth Rumble Champion, she now commanded an oversized _battalion_ of earthbenders and samurai. Other than the rank pin, her only other overt display of authority was, in an interesting blending of styles, a deep green sash that slanted from left shoulder to right hip, indicating her mastery of her element in the Fire-Nation style and matching the lacquer that had been applied to the scabbard of the wakizashi Zuko had given her.

All of this might have been ruined by the fact that she currently had a pinky finger digging in her ear as she strode into the tent on bare, slightly muddy feet.

"Yeah?" Toph said, projecting supreme unconcern for anything, including the rapidly darkening face of her father.

Zuko was certain that nobody but Toph could have pulled it off.

"This… _gentleman_ seems to think I have the power to order you to go home," Zuko said, his scowl curling up into a smirk at the growing horror on Lao's face.

"Pssh. Yeah right," Toph said, flicking whatever dirt and wax she had gathered from the inside of her ear canal and on to the ground.

"Well," Zuko said rising to his feet, "that is that then."

"Now… wait just a minute," Lao said, recovering himself and coming to his feet as well, his tone noticeably less cordial and infinitely more honest. "I don't know what you think you are _playing_ at, but just because you've got her playing _dress-up_ …" he paused, turning to Toph and moderating his tone. "Toph dearest, I don't know what these… _samurai_ have told you, but there is nothing to be afraid of. They certainly aren't capable of attacking our home, and-"

"Yeah, but Azula certainly is," Toph cutting her father off with a shake of her head.

"That…" Lao glanced at Zuko then took a step closer to his daughter, lowering the volume of his voice- "you don't need to worry about that either. I've had a letter from the Crown-Princess herself and she assures me that her brother started those vile rumors, just to destabilize the country so he can seize power. This is a pointless _dangerous_ conflict that has nothing to do with us. We will go home and-"

"Dad," Toph interjected again, "you're an idiot."

Lao rocked back in shock and stood in stunned silence for a moment, his mouth hanging open.

"Azula is a fucking crazy person," Toph continued. "And her dad is just fucking evil. Even if the burning-deadly-comet-thing _wasn't_ comingsoon I would still be trying to stop them."

"Toph, dearest… you… what do you think _you're_ going to do? You're blind!" Lao asked, his volume increasing as he spoke, finally culminating with a shout which unsettled his ridiculous hat.

"Yeah. But not nearly as blind as you are," Toph responded flatly.

Lao paused for a moment, gathering himself as he settled his cap back on his head.

"Toph, my dearest child, you need to come home," he said with a new gentleness. "Your absence… well, your mother is not well again. The stress of your absence has only exacerbated things. If you don't come home now…" he trailed away allowing the implication to settle on Toph like a ton of masonry.

Toph stiffened at his pronouncement, then, by the barest most imperceptible margin, she seemed to wilt slightly. Lao, like a hound scenting wounded prey, leapt forward.

"You and she share a delicate constitution, Toph. It would be best for the both of you if-" he cut off, going slightly cross-eyed at Toph's abruptly raised silencing finger.

"Dad?" she said softly, "did you know I… I can tell when people are lying? I… can hear their heart rates through my feet."

There was a rather pregnant pause as Lao's face worked through several different emotions; shock, then outrage, then ice-cold anger.

"Beifong Toph," he said, his voice now without a trace of its previous gentleness, formal, quiet, and deadly. "You will come home with me, this very day, or you will not _have_ a home to come back to."

"Please… don't do this, father," Toph said her fists now clenched at her sides and, unless Zuko was very much mistaken, on the verge of tears. "Please don't make me choose."

"It shouldn't be a difficult choice, daughter," Lao said.

"… you're right, it isn't," Toph said eventually. She inhaled a ragged breath, straightened up, and turned her blind eyes in Zuko's direction. "General? Would you be so kind as to ensure that Mr. Beifong here makes it out of camp safely? We… no longer have anything to discuss."

"Of course, Colonel," Zuko growled. Then with a single arm, and more force than was _strictly_ necessary, he hoisted the now squawking Beifong Lao into the air by the collar of his robe and carried him out of the tent.

"Remove this from our sight," Zuko said as he dropped Lao into the mud at the feet of the similarly scowling Uesugi's Rin and Ren. Then, one on each side of the now very shocked and disheveled man, they did so, frog-marching him past lines of scowling soldiers with green wakizashi.

Toph was shaking very slightly, her back to the tent opening, as Zuko re-entered the tent.

"You need a minute," Zuko asked, his tone more statement than a question.

"No. No, I'm… I'm fine," Toph said hurriedly, wiping her face on her arm and turning around. "Just got some… fucking dust…"

Zuko took a step forward and put one hand on her shoulder. He opened his mouth to speak, but found himself cut off by a finger in his face."

"You try and _hug_ me and I'll bury you up to your fucking nose, Sparky," Toph growled thickly.

"No hugs," Zuko said placatingly, "just a reminder."

Toph cocked her head to the side.

"You will always have a home. For as long as you want it. You are… _my_ family," Zuko said quietly.

In the coming days, when relating this story to others, Toph would claim that she then headbutted Zuko in the chest, causing him to double over in pain.

In reality, she simply leaned her head into his uniform and resumed silently weeping. Zuko, for his part, did not raise his other arm from his side.

That would have been a hug and, for the most part, his family did not _do_ hugs.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

 **Early Winter, Year 12 in the reign of Fire-Lord Ozai**

"Ty?"

"Yes, Zuko?"

"Do you think… perhaps… you could explain what it is that I am looking at?" Zuko asked, projecting as much calm as he could muster and gesturing down the hillside.

"Uh… well… that's… an army," Ty Lee said, her perpetual smile showing signs of nervousness.

"Yes. Good. Right," Zuko said nodding his head at the moderately sized encampment before them, their banners wafting in the faint wind and clearly illuminated by the setting Sun. "…and exactly _who's_ army is it, Ty?"

"Ah… well… those banners are bronze Tori gates… soooooo…"

"I was, we were _all_ under the impression, from what you had said, _assured_ us really, that clan Ikoma, your _family's_ army, was still on the mainland? Garrisoning Otosan Uchi and Shiro Hayai you said. Unlikely to move you said. Not something to _worry about_ you said."

"Ah… yeah. That was me."

"I was also under the impression that your father was siding with mine, which would make the army in front of us-"

"Ah… yeah. I don't… I mean… Dad _reeeally_ didn't want to get involved, you know?"

"…Mai?" Zuko said, his teeth gritted and smoke beginning to trail between his clenched fingers.

"My last report places Ikoma Senji in the capital as of two weeks ago," Mai said, her face a flat mask as she glared down the hill towards the small army that was encamped between Zuko and the large unrepaired rent in the Kaiu wall like it had personally insulted her. "If this _is_ the Ikoma army, then they are being led by someone else _and_ made the crossing in record time."

 _Or all my intelligence is useless,_ was the unspoken alternative.

After the scouts (Longshot and Smellerbee most irritatingly) had returned with the news of an unknown force camped dead ahead of them, Zuko had persuaded Aang to fly them nearby to observe and had ordered the rest of his forces to make camp several miles away, concealed by the gently sloping terrain. Now the people he had brought, or who had simply assumed they were invited, stood on a convenient hillside overlooking those rolling hills which extended for many miles, terminating in the still enormous, yet still broken, Kaiu Wall.

"Maybe I should go down and talk with them?" Aang asked, leaning on his staff and peering down the hillside.

"No," Katara said.

"Maybe… they're friendly," Aang said still projecting pensive optimism.

"NO," Katara repeated at very nearly the same time as Zuko.

"Well, _somebody_ needs to go down there," Aang said reasonably. "I'd rather it was me instead of a bunch of soldiers. That has the tendency to-"

Aang was suddenly cut off as Toph snapped into a bending posture and prevented most of a wall of stone from surrounding them. Zuko's blade of fire burst into being at nearly same moment that Katara's water skin arced outward in a defensive maneuver and Sokka's space-sword exited its sheath.

"Weeelll, look who's here!" an elderly voice rang out. Aang dropped his defensive stance immediately as his face lit up in a wide grin.

"Bumi!" Aang shouted. He sprang forward with a rush of airbending and nearly tackled the stooped elderly looking man who emerged from the ground dressed in an odd blue and white robe.

Zuko relaxed only minutely, glancing at Katara for her reaction. Seeing that she and Sokka were already putting their weapons away, remarkably relieved looks on their face, he followed suit, banishing his blade of fire but retaining a moderately defensive posture.

"What's going on," Toph asked, her posture also only slightly less aggressive. "Why are we surrounded by old people?"

Zuko blinked in surprise. Glancing left and right he discovered she was correct as a small arc of elderly looking men, all dressed in similar blue and white robes advanced on their position.

 _Sedately_ advancing, but advancing nonetheless.

"Sifu Pakku!" Katara gasped, and bounded forward towards an older, somewhat sour-faced man of obvious Water-Tribe ancestry.

"Master Piandao!" Sokka shouted, at almost the same moment as Ty Lee shouted, "Uncle P!" Both of them tore off towards the man that Zuko recognized as Ikoma Piandao, Lord of the Ikoma family.

 _Well, that explains the army at least,_ Zuko thought.

He and Mai looked at one another askance as the three groups began chatting animatedly. Mai, who looked a great deal more relaxed now that she knew that her intelligence was _not_ flawed, likely would have shrugged at him if she was the kind of person to do something like that. Within the space of a half-dozen heartbeats, however, she had stiffened again in a subdued fury, something she very much was the kind of person to do, as the fourth man, his wild white hair not doing anything to conceal the two long scars that stretched vertically down the right side of his face, detached himself from the group and moved in front of Zuko, staring at him somewhat imperiously.

"Admiral Jeong-Jeong," Mai said somewhat icily, without a bow.

Zuko tensed at the informal introduction as well. Jeong-Jeong's firebending skills, and his highly public desertion from the navy, were quite infamous.

"Prince Zuko," Jeong-Jeong said, bowing politely and without any trace of the malice that seemed to radiate from Mai. Zuko bowed back silently, to a lesser degree.

The three Fire-Nationals stood staring at one another for a long moment, their version of casual regard only the barest hairsbreadth away from sizing one another up for a fight.

"Ohh-kay," Toph said, rolling her head in a fair approximation of rolling her eyes. "I'm going to go bug Lord Bumi now. Just let you three be dramatic at one another in peace." With that she strode off as she normally did, leaving the three to continue silently staring at one another.

"I must admit some small measure of confusion, Jeong-Jeong-sensei," Zuko said after another long moment, drawing his posture and language up into full formal mode, the safest policy when dealing with someone who was likely an enemy. "While I had no honest expectations upon my arrival here, I did not anticipate an entire military force. Especially one so proudly flying the banners of those I was sure were my enemies."

Jeong-Jeong only nodded, his eyes never leaving Zuko.

"Perhaps," Zuko continued, his tone growing marginally more acerbic, "you might enlighten me as to the purpose of this gathering, and whether or not I should change my opinion of them?"

Jeong-Jeong continued staring at Zuko contemplatively for a long time, only opening his mouth to speak the very moment before Zuko lost his patience.

"You look… very much like him," Jeong-Jeong said, his voice low and rasping with what Zuko assumed was disuse.

"My father, yes," Zuko growled. "I fail to see what that has to-"

"No," Jeong-Jeong interjected, "…Roku. You very much resemble honored Roku." With that, he turned around and made his way back to his compatriots.

Mai, her eyes gleaming with rage, started forward after him, but managed to stop herself in mid-lunge to avoid running into Zuko's preemptively outstretched hand.

"He's a _traitor,_ Zuko," she hissed quietly, her eyes still on Jeong-Jeong's back. "You know we've been hunting him for _years,_ and now he's _right there_!"

"Technically, we are traitors as well, Mai," Zuko said equally quiet. "I know that he is Shosuro and that makes him your-"

"He is _not_ Shosuro," Mai hissed venomously, her face actually beginning to contort towards a grimace.

"Mai…" Zuko waited, looking to see that she finally looked away from her great-uncle's retreating back before continuing. "This is most certainly _not_ the time for this. Will you be able to control yourself, or must I send you back to camp?"

There was no condemnation there, just a simple question.

Mai closed her eyes and exhaled a shuddering breath.

"All is well, my prince," she said, formal language helping her make her normal calm and ambivalent mask materialize on her face.

Zuko nodded in acceptance and the two of them followed Jeong-Jeong's path ahead to the rapidly quieting riot of conversation that surrounded Bumi, Pakku, and Piandao.

"Prince Zuko," Piandao said as the conversation quieted around him, his tone inflecting into the formal speech as well as he bowed. "Pleased I am to see you."

"As am I, Lord Ikoma," Zuko answered, giving him one his deeper bows, one that he reserved for High Lords that he _actually_ respected. "Might I inquire as to your purpose here?"

"I, and some few of my retainers, are here meeting with some old comrades of mine," Piandao answered, gesturing to the other robed figures.

Bumi waved merrily.

"Comrades… among whom we find a Crane waterbending master, the until recently incarcerated Lord Kuni, and… the deserter Jeong-Jeong-sensei?"

"Interesting times make for interesting comrades," Piandao quoted, "and, if I may be permitted to say, Your Highness, all the days of this era are _interesting_ ones."

 _Yes,_ Zuko thought wryly, _my father's era will make some future lecturer of history VERY interested._

"Leaving that aside," Zuko continued, "may I, once again, inquire as to your purpose here?"

"You may recall, my Prince, that clan Seizuka is vassal to my own Ikoma?" Piandao said, the barest hint of emotion creeping into his voice. "Word has only recently come to my ears, baseless rumors I am sure, as to the inclination of one of their generals. And so, I journeyed here to learn the truth of such things, whereupon I met with these, my interesting comrades."

"Quite a coincidence," Zuko said, not bothering to conceal his skepticism.

"Quite," Piandao replied, smiling slightly and bowing again.

"Uh… why are they talking like that?" Sokka asked, loudly stage-whisperingbehind his hand to Bumi.

"Oh, you know how Fire-Nationals are," Bumi said loudly with a snort and a remarkably unseemly giggle. "It just wouldn't DO to say that we're part of an ancient secret organization that seeks to end the war, reestablish balance, support the Avatar, and play as much Pai Sho as we can sneak into every alternate Thursday. _So_ they come up with excuses." He shrugged, a maneuver that revealed just how many muscles he was concealing behind his robe and doddering old man façade. "Very _implausible_ excuses if you ask me, buuuut it works for them. Might have just said, 'all old people know each other,' and then left it at that."

Piandao let out an exasperated sigh as Zuko froze in shock.

 _Secret international organization? … Supporting the Avatar?_

"Is my uncle one of your comrades, Lord Ikoma?" Zuko's inflection had dropped the formality for the icy calm tones that normally presaged violence of some variety.

"Yes, Highness," Piandao said quietly.

"And would these comrades-" Zuko reached into his belt and drew out the Pai Sho tile his uncle had sent him- "in some way be connected to this?"

"Yes, Your Highness. We are called the Order of the White Lotus."

" _It was up my sleeve the whole time,"_ the letter had said.

The White Lotus tile in Zuko's hand, the one his uncle had sent him, the one he had used to gain them false documentation in the Earth-Kingdom, the one he had "lost" in the days when they still had _The Devastator,_ the one that Iroh had always liked to use, even in the days before his banishment, snapped in half in Zuko's clenched fist.

"I will need to have a word with my uncle," Zuko said.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

There was something about a door.

In most stories a door was a symbol of change, a semi-permeable barrier that indicated a turning point or decision. Zuko knew that decisions were important, doubly so when one was in charge. Any decision he made, on the battlefield or off, could easily result in his death or serious injury, either literally or figuratively. That was the price one paid when one was samurai.

It seemed to Zuko, as he sat in tense silence, that it truly did not matter if the door in question was enormous and bronze, engraved with the roaring lions and rearing scorpions of the Fire-Nation, or if it was the simple loosely tied canvas of a camp tent, unremarkable in every way. A door was a door, a decision was a decision, and the same potent anxiety that had once gripped Zuko in the moments before he had re-entered the throne room in Otosan Uchi once again snaked its way around his mind and heart.

Fear. Fear at seeing yet another family member.

So Zuko sat in the dirt in front of that decision, not even ten paces from it in fact, fighting against that fear, his single eye locked on the tent and his standard scowl on his face.

"Are you ok?"

It was Katara, appearing out of the night like all of his worst and best dreams. She came from behind him and sat down on his left. Just far enough forward to be out of his blind spot and radiating that still somewhat mystifying aura of calm as she faced him.

"…No," Zuko said after a long pause. "No, I am not. I do not…"

Katara's right hand drifted over to his left and gently coaxed it out of its white-knuckled death-grip on his katana's scabbard and into her grasp.

"He told me to go with you, you know?" Zuko said quietly. "He knew I was in love with you and said that… that I deserved to be happy and so I should go with you and Aang. Then I betrayed him. Ignored him, locked him in a cell, and just…"

Katara cocked an eyebrow at this, perfectly illustrating what Zuko was sure would have been a remarkably sarcastic comment. But she said nothing aloud, and allowed Zuko to continue.

"I am… conflicted," Zuko continued. "Uncle has been one of the few people that I knew, that I _thought,_ genuinely cared for me. Yet, after all we have been through together, all the guilt, now I find that… that… he is a member of some secret organization dedicated to serving the Avatar? All those times back on the ship… all those times… was he just _playing_ me? Was I just another Pai Sho tile to him? Just a tile to play in some larger game?" The shattered pieces of the Pai Sho tile his uncle had sent him dug into the palm of his right hand, a mere ounce of pressure away from drawing blood.

"Zuko…"

"He was _supposed_ to be the Fire-Lord, you understand?" Zuko continued, now almost rambling. "After my grandfather passed… if he had just… come _home,_ right away, and pressed his claim… then _none_ of this would have happened. Did he intend all of this? All of _this?_ And I… I… it just makes me so… _angry._ And that anger just makes me…" he finally turned his head and looked at Katara, "… _sick._ Sick with guilt, and I begin to wish I had never even…" he trailed off, exhaling a shuddering breath.

"…You've told me a lot about your uncle," Katara said after a long moment. "All about how wise and good and smart he is. But I think you need to remember that… he's just a _person_ , Zuko. People do things you might not always agree with, they make mistakes, then regret them. But you can't go back and change the past. No matter how much you might _want_ to." She gave in and finally rolled her eyes. "No matter how much that might have 'doomed' the world," she finished sarcastically.

"Katara, we've been over this. If I had not gone back-"

"Yes-yes-yes, that's not important," Katara said, brushing the digression away with her left hand, a Fire-Nation mannerism she had begun to pick up from Mai and Ty Lee. "What _is_ important," she continued in a much softer tone, "is the fact that you've built your uncle up into this… omnipotent sage figure. He is _just_ a man, just like you." She snorted quietly. "Besides, you're never going to know the answers to any of these questions if you don't _ask_. What do you stand to lose?"

"Everything," Zuko said, his eye falling into the dirt outside of his uncle's tent. "Katara, I am going to go in there and… shout at him. He will either say something pointlessly cryptic, or shout back. By the end of it, this camp will be in flames and a battle that neither of us can afford will be underway. It will be the very end of-"

"Now you're just being silly," Katara said with another eyeroll. "You _love_ your uncle, and if he's even close to _anything_ like you then he loves you too. So just…" she rose to her feet, tugging Zuko's hand until he copied her- "…go _in_ there and _tell_ him that."

"…Your optimism is going to get me killed one of these days," Zuko said eventually, brushing his lips over the back of her hand, his single eye focusing on the door to the tent. He straightened his posture, released her hand and began to move forward.

"And if I'm wrong," Katara said from behind him, "which I am _not,_ I'll just come in there and freeze you both up to your necks until you stop being stupid."

"Well, always good to have a backup plan," Zuko muttered.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"I guess that settles it. It must be innate."

The interior of the tent, its floor covered with a surprisingly ornate rug, was filled with flickering shadows. The whole of the space was illuminated by a single candle at its far end which, in turn, was mostly obscured by Iroh's kneeling form. Zuko had only just finished coming through the tent flap and froze in place when his uncle made his pronouncement.

"I suppose that puts paid to your 'only I am unblessed by the heavens' theory," Iroh continued mildly gesturing at the candle in front of him. "Not that I imagine that you lack for self-confidence anymore."

"Uncle…"

"I imagine you must be rather upset with me," Iroh said, finally shifting around to face Zuko, remaining seated. "I admit… I am rather upset with myself as well."

Zuko took a moment to goggle at his uncle who in his long absence had both retied his hair in the samurai's topknot and shed most of the potbelly he had sported for the better part of a decade before responding. "…You are upset… with yourself."

"Yes. I hope you will forgive an old man for misjudging you, and your situation, quite as badly as I have done?"

"Uncle… I… I am the one who should… who should be… why aren't you angry!?" Zuko finished with a half-hearted snap.

"I could never be angry at you for trying to do what you thought best. Not when… not when there was so _much_ I could have, _should have_ told you. I just never found the right time, the right moment." Iroh sighed shaking his head. "So many chances to be brave… so many chances, and now… can you ever forgive me?"

"Forgive _you?_ For… for… I am the one who…" Zuko struggled to find the right words, to give voice to all the things he had been conflicted about, angry and guilty and fearful about, but they all seemed somewhat weak and feeble here under his uncle's calm yellow-eyed gaze. "What would you have told me?" he finally asked.

"That your father was a monster that never deserved a drop of the loyalty that you gave him? That I had been in collusion with foreign elements for years? That the only real hope our family had of regaining its honor lay with the Avatar?"

"I… would not have listened."

"Maybe. Maybe not. We will never know now, and _that,_ my boy, is one of my greatest regrets. I will never know if all of this might have been averted if I had simply been as honest and forthright as you have always been. I am truly sorry, Zuko."

"I had… I had to…"

"You know I never meant to conquer Ba Sing Se?" Iroh said, his eyes boring into Zuko's, his words falling from his lips in the manner of all long-kept secrets. "I had hoped that after a futile two-year siege even my father would see the futility of the conflict and turn from the path of war. Then Lu Ten died, I lost myself to the madness, and when I truly came back to myself your father had already taken the throne and all my foolish plotting was undone. All those lives… gambled away for nothing."

"Uncle… why are you telling me this?" Zuko asked.

"…Why aren't you angry?" Iroh answered.

"I…" Zuko exhaled a long sighing breath, "I could never be truly angry at you, Uncle."

Iroh cocked a bushy eyebrow.

"Irritated, certainly, but… never really angry," Zuko admitted. "You are my uncle, and I love you. I just… I _abandoned_ you!" Zuko said, snapping again and throwing his hands up in frustration. "I threw you in prison! How can you forgive me so easily?"

"Because you are my nephew, and I love you too," Iroh said quietly.

Both of them held there for a long moment, searching the other's face in mirrored surprise and curiosity.

"Huh," Zuko said with a quiet grunt. "That was a great deal easier than I thought it would be."

"I would normally say that you often overthink these things but… I admit that this was far easier than _I_ thought it would be too," Iroh replied, a wide grin spreading across his face. "Shall we have some tea? I've an excellent Earth-Kingdom ginger you might like, and there are a great many, far less sentimental, matters that we ought to discuss, I think."

"Of course, Uncle."

Zuko moved to sit on the rug across from his uncle as Iroh rose to his feet, but both of them froze in mid-crouch at the sound of an exasperated _tsk_ from behind one of the changing screens to Zuko's left.

"That's _it?_ " a throaty woman's voice said from out sight. "You both simply _decide_ that everything's alright… and then _tea?_ No tears? No consoling embrace? Where's the emotion? Where's the _drama?_ "

"Uncle…" Zuko said, hoping against hope that he had not correctly identified the voice, " _who_ is that?"

"Now… nephew," Iroh began, wincing slightly, "you recall, just a moment ago, how you said you could never _truly_ be angry at your poor old uncle?"

Zuko began to feel a vein throb in his head as his eye, now acclimated to the dim light of the single lit candle, began to really assess the interior of the tent. It was far larger than would be expected for a single occupant, there was a double-wide futon on his right, a far more ornate variety of rugs on floor than he had ever imagined his uncle would want to carry with him on a march, and… boxes.

A great many lacquered wooden boxes.

The kind of boxes meant for holding _fans._

"Darling, the two of you are incorrigible!" Lady Xian exclaimed as she swanned out from behind the painted changing screen. Zuko marveled at the changes in her as well, her face unpainted, her hair out of the geisha's shimada and into a typical wide feminine Fire-Nation top-knot, with a flame-shaped pin. She was practically unrecognizable except for her voice and mannerisms. "Honestly, I'm not sure whether to blame your gender or your profession for this lack-luster performance. If the poets are ever going to dramatize this, they are going to have to take some _heavy_ dramatic license."

"…I'm sorry?"

"Darling," Xian continued, gliding over to him and snapping open the fan in her hand as she spoke, "the return of the prodigal is a time-honored cliché in theater, and after you've won this silly little war of yours you _know_ this moment will have to be immortalized. The Ikoma are going to have a _field day._ "

"Uncle…" Zuko growled, "may I ask why the _head of the Ba Sing Se intelligence community_ is here in your tent?"

"Now… nephew," Iroh said grinning sheepishly, "you know that I love you and that, as relatives who love one another, we should never be overly-"

"A Scorpion… _Geisha!_ " Zuko roared, straightening up and taking a menacing step towards his uncle. "You- you-"

"I was never a _geisha,_ Darling," Xian said idly, now examining her nails. "They don't have them in the Earth-Kingdom, you know."

"' _Never_ go into the geisha tent,' you said," Zuko shouted, ignoring Xian in favor of berating his still sheepishly wincing uncle. "'It's bound to be full of Scorpion spies,' you said. 'Never trust a Scorpion Geisha,' you said! You- you- Sun-blinded old foo-"

"Alright!" Katara began as she stormed through the tent flap, "You two idiots are going to sit down and- uh…" she trailed away as she took in the scene and the unanticipated third occupant.

"Sifu Katara," Xian crooned, gliding forward and taking Katara's hands in her own. "So delightful of you to join us."

"Ah… I'm sorry, have we met?" Katara asked, her eyes darting between Xian and Zuko, totally caught off guard.

"No, but we have _corresponded,_ darling. I believe I sent you a basket of citrus fruits."

"Basket of…" Katara gasped. "You're Zuko's boss!"

"Former boss," Zuko growled.

"Citrus fruits?" Iroh asked

"Yes, when we first started-" Katara gasped again, louder this time as her hands flew to her mouth. "You two got engaged!?"

"…Got… got what?" Zuko asked, dumbfounded. The hairpins in Xian and his uncle's topknots had seemed golden in color by the light of the candle, but now, in the moonlight through the still slightly open tent flap, they were revealed to be silver.

Silver _betrothal_ combs.

"Now, Zuko, you know what Fire-Lord Tzu said, 'being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply-"

"You utterly _ridiculous_ old man!" Zuko roared. "I am going to hang you by your _toes_ over a-"

"Hey, can you keep in down in there?" June said as she forced her way into the tent past Katara and Xian. "People are starting to stare." She turned to Iroh. "You got my money, gramps?"

"June, sweetie, it's so nice to see you," Xian said swiveling in her direction. June tensed for a second before giving herself a shake and re-focusing on Iroh.

"Money?"

"Well… yes, of course," Iroh said placatingly, his eyes flitting between the bounty hunter and the not-a-geisha behind her. "But first, why don't you join us for some tea? I believe I have enough cups for all of-"

"Just _pay_ me and I'll be out of your hair. What's left of it anyway."

"Oh… well… yes. Of course," Iroh said still somewhat worriedly glancing between Xian and June, the latter of which still pointedly looking at anything but the former. He eventually sighed and turned to begin sorting through the contents of a large trunk set against one of the walls of the tent.

An awkward, if somewhat confused, silence fell over the tent as he did so.

"So… how has your job been treating you?" Xian asked softly, her voice strangely pensive and very unlike anything Zuko had ever heard from her before.

"Fine," June answered tersely, not turning around to face her.

"I imagine that… hunting bounties… must be very… exciting?"

June only snorted at that.

"I suppose that…" Xian paused for a moment to consider, "in the course of your work… you must hear quite a bit about-"

"No."

"June dear, we both know that criminals _talk._ Surely that puts you in a fortuitously unique position to-"

"I do not know how many times I have to say this," June snapped, her back hunching in poorly suppressed irritation. "I. Am NOT. A SPY."

"Yes dear, but you _could_ be. Honestly, it would be a great deal safer than just galivanting around the-"

"I like my job," June growled, her fists clenching as she pointedly did not turn around.

"Yes, of course, but you would basically be doing the exact same thing. _And_ making a fair sight more than-"

"You got my money yet, old man?" June called.

"Just a moment," Iroh said, most of his torso now in the large chest.

The awkward silence returned for another long visit.

"… I just don't see the difference, dear." Xian said, again shooing the silence away. "I mean, if you're willing to transport messages…"

"Something I'm beginning to regret," June muttered.

"…then surely asking a few simple _questions_ is not beyond the realm of possibilit-"

"You just DON'T get it!" June said, snapping again and finally rounding on Xian. "I _like_ my job. I do NOT like yours. Why is this so difficult for you to understand?"

"I just… worry, dear. You know it would be much safer if you just-"

"If I just _what?!_ " June said, forgetting her earlier comment and full-on shouting now. "If I spent my whole life _hiding?_ Just tucked my chin, bowing and scraping for every idiot with delusions of grandeur? Just went all in and kept _pretending_ to be harmless? Lying to _myself_ and everyone else? That would KILL me! Just like it killed dad!"

"June!" Xian gasped, seeming, for possibly the first time ever, genuinely horrified.

"I won't live like that, mother," June continued as Katara's jaw dropped. "I will not allow your _lies_ to kill me, just like it killed-" she was cut off abruptly as, faster than Zuko would have supposed possible, Xian's hand came up and slapped her daughter full across the face.

"Your father's death was a terrible accident," Xian said quietly, her face now showing real anger. "He knew full well who I was, and what I was about, and he married me anyway. But how can you think, for even _one_ moment that, had someone killed him, I would not have discovered it? Discovered it, and gotten my vengeance."

June, her face remaining in the same place it had been slapped too, continued to look down and away and another silence blanketed the inside of Iroh's tent.

"We… should come back later," Zuko said quietly, edging towards the tent entrance.

"Shh," Katara said quietly, remaining in place but still looking as openly stunned as Zuko felt.

"Your father was taken from us by the wild capricious whims of the kami," Xian continued after a moment. "I might have had an easier time of it if there _had_ been some guilty party, someone I could punish, some scheme I could unravel. But there was nothing, no plot, no scheme, no enemy, that took Zhen from us, June, I swear to you." She took a step forward and took June's hands in hers. "Your job is dangerous, and I just worry that you will die without reason too. A single misstep, a single foot wrong, a single random rampaging ostrich-horse in a crowded street… and you're gone too."

"I'd just as soon die honest," June said quietly, peering at her mother through the bangs that had come unsettled with the force of the slap.

"Yes, of course dear, you are right. You are your father's daughter after all, and he was never one for subterfuge. Which, honestly, is why I married him. I always knew he meant it when he said he loved me. I… am so sorry, dear."

And with that, and with the beginnings of tears in her eyes, she pulled June into a tight hug which despite everything that appeared to have happened between them, June gradually returned.

"We _should_ come back later," Zuko repeated, now thoroughly embarrassed at what should have been a private display of familial affection.

"No, no, _stay,_ " Xian said, only partially avoiding an emotion-laden croak. "See, _this_ is what familial reconciliation _should_ be like. Tearful, but with a happy conclusion."

"Don't push it, mom," June said with a sigh.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"Well, that wasn't what _I_ was expecting," Sokka said, a bemused grin on his face as he and Zuko rode a pair of ostrich-horses at the head of the now _westbound_ rebel legion.

To be fair, the events of the last week had not really been what _anyone_ had been expecting.

That an army that _no one_ could have anticipated had appeared on the very steps of Ba Sing Se was improbable, to say the least. Even more improbable was the fact that, no matter that it was numerically smaller than Zuko's force, it contained an unprecedented density of sword and bending masters of all nationalities that was _more_ than capable of maintaining, and effectively prosecuting, a siege on the still damaged Ba Sing Se. Even _more_ unlikely was the fact that the rebel forces were now accompanied by one of the most powerful and respected of the Earth-Lords. Already messenger hawks were flowing in and out of Zuko's camp from the varied Lords and Generals of the Earth-Kingdom and Zuko's hopes for the upcoming campaign had his spirits justly high.

Everyone seemed to have had their spirits raised remarkably

Zuko, having discovered that he had been forgiven by his uncle for any perceived transgressions, and had accordingly forgiven him for those few things that _Iroh_ felt he had done wrong, had had yet another burden lifted from his shoulders.

Had she been the type of person to do such a thing Mai would have been nearly giddy with excitement after she gained access to Lady Xian's intelligence apparatus. The efficacy of their merged networks was much greater than the sum of their parts, and now both forces had a much greater understanding of the strategic picture which Zuko and his uncle had made great use of in their brief time strategizing together.

Aang, who _was_ that kind of person, was practically alight with pleasure to discover that, not only was his oldest friend now coming with him, but there were a large number of people who not only supported him but had never _stopped_ believing in him. He had been practically levitating in excitement, chatting animatedly with Lord Bumi and Ty Lee, as Zuko had ridden past him to the front of the column to begin the days march.

Zuko himself was not certain how he felt about this "Order of the White Lotus," but, as he had frequently said, every hand _was_ necessary. If they wanted to save the honor of his people, and the lives of this entire continent, he was more than happy to work with them.

Finally, Katara had been rather smugly pleased to discover that her old waterbending teacher, Kakita Pakku, was attempting to woo her honored grandmother. While he had not yet been successful, Katara had said that, based on the contents of the letter her "gran-gran" had written, he was at least going about in a far more "respectful" manner than he might have done without her intervention.

This was actually what Sokka and Zuko were discussing in somewhat muted tones at the front of the marching column. The improbability, and the "icky-ness" as Sokka put it, of the old people they knew getting married.

But other than that "icky-ness" of Sokka's Zuko felt rather good about the future. They had a _plan_ now, and even the paranoid part of Zuko was mildly calmed by the fact that it was not just _his_ plan, but his Uncle's as well. Zuko would march back to the western ocean, gathering forces that would be summoned by Bumi and those that had already been summoned by Hakoda. They would liberate a few captured fortresses, proving their sincerity as they did so. They would fight whatever loyalist forces moved to intercept them wherever strategically and tactically viable and then eventually re-take Omashu. Xian's intelligence network said that a large contingent of airships were being assembled in a secret airbase just outside of the city. Once the city and those airships were theirs they would be well placed to counter, and eventually defeat, Zuko's father and bring this war to a final conclusion.

It was a good plan, with many redundancies and with room for adaptation. Even Zuko, who knew full well that no plan ever truly survived the first arrow, was beginning to feel cautiously optimistic about the future.

He really should have known better.

The idle banter regarding Sokka's grandmother and her dating life was shattered as the sensation of powerful firebending blossomed in Zuko's mind along the left side of the road the legion marched down.

"AMBUSH!" Zuko roared. Sokka managed to pull his sword as Zuko wheeled his ostrich-horse around and galloped part of the way down the line, shouting the whole way in the brief moment before the trap was sprung.

And then the first arrow was fired…

…and the plan disappeared in a concussive blast of fire.

* * *

 **A/N: Well well well, what have we here? Another update? In the same MONTH? Gasp!**

 **Good evening my friends and welcome to the authors note of this, the 18** **th** **chapter, of my ongoing keyboard smashing extravaganza! Hope you enjoyed the preceding words and sentences and so on, as you generally all seem to do (for some odd reason.) Remember to comment kudos blah-blah-blah, you know the drill, if you're still reading it's because you want some a doze…**

 **.**

 **META-BITS**

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 **Purple Camo: Because why not? Hakoda's not an idiot, he gets the strategic concerns. Might as well go all in on supporting his daughter's boyfriend. I just like the idea of one of those big nasty battle-blimps in a goofy evening sky colored camouflage. But I admit, I'm weird like that.**

 **.**

 **Vignettes: This is another of those chapters that darts around through times and space like a… thing… that darts. A dart-y thing. I'm running low on similes today apparently. Just try and pay attention to the time-stamp and remember that this chapter takes place over the span of 3 months. Hope that came across.**

 **.**

 **The Lost: The thrilling conclusion to my own weird interpretation of how the Fire-Nation deals with its colonies and the earthbenders that may or may not inhabit them. The topic fascinates me slightly, and sets Zuko up for a much larger confrontation in whatever I replace "The Promise" with. Whether or not I write that far is a matter of some internal debate. (More like me begging pleading what have you with my muse to come back).**

 **.**

 **Fire nation man was ALWAYS intended to be an Actual fire-nation citizen, but somewhere in the middle of book 4 I realized that he was ALSO Rin's brother. One of those weird, not actually a decision, things. But it does segue nicely into…**

 **.**

 **Everyone is related: When you have a culture and a society that is stratified by a specific trait or ability the likelihood of people with that trait being related becomes much higher. Aristocracies intermarry and people of a certain class tend to know one another. And sometimes they date!**

 **.**

 **But anyway, many of these revealed family relationships were a great deal of fun for me to keep in the back of my brain. Some of them, like the Mai &Jeong-Jeong thing came as a complete surprise. Mai was PISSED at Jeong-Jeong in this scene and I didn't realize why until much later. She's his grandfather's younger brother and his defection was a HUGE dishonor to her family. They are all ABOUT duty, and defection is about the worst thing you can do.**

 **.**

 **Mr Beifong: As I go on, and think about this stuff far too much, the more and more Lao pisses me off. I love Toph to pieces and anyone who does her dirty is going to get the figurative uppercut from me. I don't know how you watch Toph beat the hell out of some dudes, by herself, and then insist that she need MORE protection. So I am pleased to give Toph a breaking point there with her dad. Maybe I could have gone the reconciliation route (I did that a lot in this chapter) but this felt right to me. Toph played it cool until Lao tried to use her mother's illness against her. **

**.**

 **That just about broke her heart. I think she realized that this is something he had been doing for her whole life. And honestly what's worse than using someone's affection for another to manipulate?**

 **.**

 **Fuck that guy.**

 **.**

 **Iroh, Grand Poohbah of the White Lotus: I managed to fit many of my concerns about Iroh's membership in the white lotus into Zuko's little brood-fest. It's got to come as a shock that the kooky old sage figure is the head of an organization that would have been your enemy only a few years ago. This is why Zuko is conflicted. He gets that his Uncle was on the RIGHT side, but it's somewhat dismaying to find out that he might not have been on HIS side the whole time.**

 **.**

 **Tearful Reconciliation: This scene was hard for me to write. I expected it to go one way, which was the way that canon did it, but it simply refused to do so. Maybe because Zuko is older, maybe Iroh is less sure of himself, I don't know. They just both realized at pretty much the same time that they didn't want to be angry or sad or guilty at each other and so said "we good?" "yeah, we good."**

 **.**

 **And then Lady Xian swanned in. And real drama ensues.**

 **.**

 **Pakku, apparently a smooth operator: I'm sorry canon Avatar, you know I love you but that was some **_**bullshit**_ **. Pakku, the man Kanna leaves for being too sexist, just shows up at the south pole and all of a sudden they get married? I mean I get that they're old and probably have no time to waste but… holy hell. I require a better explanation! I** _ **deserve**_ **a better explanation. So no, Pakku isn't Katara's gramp-gramp. He's trying, and maybe in a year or two of groveling Kanna will go on a DATE with him, but otherwise F' That.**

 **.**

 **WARNING!: This chapter's cliffhanger is the beginning of the war. The for **_**real**_ **war. I not at all subtly remind you here and now to check the chapter/author warnings, if you are on AO3. If you're a FFN person THIS is your early warning notification.**

 **.**

 **This is a** _ **samurai**_ **epic.**

 **.**

 **And in samurai epics… people die.**

 **.**

 **/faint sound of the ominous bassoon of foreshadowing.**

 **.**

 **Have a good one! Thanks for reading! Hopefully I'll get a bunch of this done in my free time this week!**

 **.**

 **.**

 **NEXT TIME on a very special "Avatar: The Last Dragon"...**

 **Zuko fights. People die. There is much ado.**

 **TUNE IN. Some random Zuko time, but same Zuko channel!**

 **Original post date: 24 Feb 2020**


	19. The Battle of Dust and Snow

**A/N:** **The Following is rated M for Meetings and Partings.**

 **It takes place, chronologically, somewhere during the series finale S3E18-21 "Sozin's Comet."**

 **Reader discretion is advised.**

* * *

Chapter 19: The Battle of Dust and Snow

* * *

 **Early Winter, Year 12 in the Reign of Fire-Lord Ozai**

Everywhere was dust.

The flat stretches of arid badlands a few days outside of Ba Sing Se, despite being pockmarked with the occasional abrupt spar of stone, were very conductive to cavalry charge. The masked cavalrymen of the Nanbu clan, loyalists and Scorpions all, had made good use of the terrain in the implementation of their ambush, going so far as to carve hiding places in the small buttes that dotted the landscape, and then flooding out into a quick charge after the initial disorienting volley of firebending. Whether by intent, or by accident, the dust that had flared up in the initial explosion was made an order of magnitude worse by the quick and fevered charge of so many ostrich-horses. So thick was the dust that it functionally blinded both sides and made establishing a functional line of battle a tactical impossibility.

Everywhere was chaos.

General good order and discipline could only go so far in such a situation, and it had dissolved quite quickly in the face of the numerous ringing explosions that had sounded up and down the column. The surprise of the ambush, completely unexpected this close to the walls of Ba Sing Se, as well as the absence of a clearly visible line of battle to advance to or withdraw from, created pure pandemonium on _both_ sides of the fight. Every unit fought on their own, companies of soldiers occasionally finding one another like drunks stumbling around in a dark and unfamiliar room, colliding with one another, fumbling to ascertain the other's identity, and then either supporting one another or descending into a fury of combat that would see both bloodied until the flow of battle divided them again. In such a time as this it was down to the individual skill levels of the junior officers to keep their unit's cohesion, their troops fighting, and to try to find _some_ semblance of a strategy in the dust-choked madness that was this battle.

Zuko had to say that he liked his chances.

Or he would have, had he had the time to think about such things.

He'd lost his ostrich-horse a half an hour ago to an arrow that had appeared sourcelessly out of the dust, and he thanked the spirits that the first troop of soldiers he stumbled across after that were some of his own. He had taken command of the company of officer-less yari-spearmen and begun leading them again and again into the pockets of Nanbu that sporadically appeared out of the ever-present dust. The Nanbu were shockingly quiet at first, even for light cavalry, but those quiet taloned footfalls quickly became thunderous once they had ascertained that they had found an enemy. The Nanbu themselves shrieked like howling demons in the midst of their charge, which, while it did have a demoralizing effect, also usually gave away their position very clearly, giving Zuko a target and dragging him from conflict to conflict.

Five minutes ago it had dragged him up a small incline, through a stymied enemy force, and onto a hilltop in the midst of a mixed force of purple and red-clad samurai, all of whom fought under a purple and white banner displaying a jian sword crossed with a boomerang.

"Where in the spirits' name did you get that?!" Zuko roared above the din of battle as he waded into the center of the formation.

"Suki…" Sokka paused momentarily, grunting as he whipped his boomerang at an enemy bowman who was eyeing Zuko's back, "…made it for me!"

"Suki can sew?" Zuko said, hurling a blast of fire at a suddenly very surprised, and now very dead, Nanbu who had breached the formation's perimeter.

"Yeah, she's just _full_ of freezing surprises!" Sokka said, his grin a mix of happy and feral as he caught his returning boomerang.

"Any idea where Aang is?" Zuko asked as he put his back to Sokka's, watching the faltering Nanbu that were now second-guessing this particular foray and being driven back by his sudden appearance.

Sokka grimaced and shrugged. "No idea. He's probably above us somewhere, trying to figure out what to do… Or looking for Katara."

"Ash," Zuko said with a snarl as he snapped a firewhip at another Nanbu. Even now, surrounded by enemies to kill, the impulse to go moose-haring off to find Katara was quite powerful. It was only his duty to the soldiers he had taken charge of that stayed his hand.

That, and the fact that Katara, as she frequently reminded him, could take care of herself, thank you very much, and would be exceptionally cross at him for doing so.

So, mangled face torn between frustration and ferocity, Zuko began barking orders to fully integrate his soldiers in with Sokka's Water-Tribesmen.

"Honor before reason!" He roared.

"Death before dishonor!" they roared back spears pointed outward and their voices mixing with the thunder and shrieking of a newly appeared and charging enemy.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Sokka had started laughing.

While Zuko was no stranger to laughter on the battlefield, the impulse still came to him regularly, demon or no demon, when confronted with pitched violence, but it was unusual to see it coming from Sokka. For the most part, Sokka had maintained a stoic teeth-gritted silence that was part and parcel for a Unicorn on the defensive, only opening his mouth to bark an order, or a warning or, half under his breath now, to call out one of his ridiculous attack names.

But now, a seeming eternity after the battle's explosive beginning, he was laughing.

Laughing because… despite Zuko and his great, possibly even heroic, efforts, they were _losing_.

It felt like hours since they had taken this most recent hill and held it, collecting detached soldiers who emerged out of the now fading dust like specters in red and dusty-tan. Soldiers fell, were replaced, and fell again, and the circle of spears and swords was now much smaller than it had been, barely five paces at its widest point now, as the Sun passed its zenith. The laughter had truly begun in earnest when, a few minutes previously, a light wind had finally appeared out of the south and begun the slow work of clearing the dust away from the battlefield and gradually revealing a now rapidly consolidating line of battle.

A line of battle that Zuko and Sokka had discovered themselves on the _wrong_ side of.

From what Zuko could see in the now infrequent pauses between enemy charges, the main body of his legion was doing quite well. A line of spears and stone had been established and rocks were being dropped from the airship and then noticeably being accelerated and changed in direction by the earthbending contingent. Now that his legion had achieved their footing the Nanbu would be hard-pressed to charge them effectively as Fire-Nation steel flashed and struck while stones thudded down on them from above. Also in those now infrequent moments of respite, Zuko was eternally grateful that, only the day before, he had consolidated the baggage train and the Crane medical corps, onto the battle-blimp, increasing their overall marching speed and also ensuring that something, much like what had just happened, would not cripple the legion.

Not that any of _that_ did him any good at this particular moment.

"You know… if anyone had told me… that I'd be… dying with a Fire-Nation Prince at my back…" Sokka wheezed.

"You would have laughed," Zuko said, his teeth bared and his lone eye locked on another rapidly approaching Nanbu charge that had begun swinging their way only a few moments before, finding them an easy target in the dust clearing rising wind.

"Ooooh yeah!" Sokka crowed, "and _then_ I'd have asked them to share whatever it was that they were drinking! _Cactus-juice_ likely. Did I ever tell you about-"

"Set! Spears!" Zuko barked. The bedraggled remnants under his command crouched low in a doubled row, bracing the butts of their yari against the ground with their body weight, purple Unicorn and red Fire-Nation soldier almost indistinguishable from one another in the caked dust.

"-all dehydrated in the Burning Sands after we'd escaped from Wan Shi Tong's Library, and then Momo and I found this cactus-" Sokka continued, rolling his neck and taking a better grip on his jian sword.

"Though I die this day…" Zuko intoned quietly, drawing his great-uncle's katana, his firebending no longer overly reliable after so much use in driving away enemy units too large to engage effectively.

"-there were so many _colors_ and-"

"…I go to my ancestors…" Zuko continued, his voice quickly becoming lost in the sound of the taloned charge and Nanbu screeching.

"-and _then_ I said, maybe it's a _friendly_ mushroom!" Sokka shouted.

"…and _she_ survives this."

"Friendly. Motherfucking. MUSHROOM!" Sokka roared, pointing his jian at the enemy, sighting a last toss of his boomerang.

Zuko barked a laugh as he drew up into a sword stance…

…and then the world was nothing except the crash of bodies colliding, the shine of steel on steel, and the sharp tang of blood in the still dust-laden air.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"Up! Get Up!" Zuko growled after spitting blood out of his mouth. He grabbed Sokka by the left forearm, his right hand still clenched around his katana, the blade entirely crimson, and pulled him out from under a dead Nanbu.

"Just… five more minutes…" Sokka muttered.

"The standard cavalry wheel will see them back on us in ninety seconds," Zuko croaked, his hair whipping around his head in the still-rising southern wind, his helmet now missing somewhere among the dead. "So. Unless you want to die on your _back_ …"

"Well, damnit, when you put it like that…" Sokka said with a pained smirk. He groaned as Zuko helped him to his feet, clutching at his left side, the purple now visible and darker with slowly spreading blood. "You, ah, got something on you there," he said gesturing at Zuko's left shoulder."

Zuko glanced down and was surprised to see a pair of arrows sticking out of the gap between his shoulder pauldron and chest armor.

"Ah. I have been shot."

"Katara's going to kill you," Sokka said shaking his head.

Zuko nodded with a grunt of affirmation as the Nanbu company reached the halfway point of their wheel. There were less than a dozen figures around them now, slowly and painfully clambering their way to their feet.

"So… I _am_ sorry," Zuko said, grunting slightly as he snapped the arrows off midway up the shaft, "but I missed that last bit. What was that about a mushroom?"

Sokka laughed. "Oh, well, _apparently_ the liquid inside of a cactus, while quenchy, is… is…" Sokka trailed off, his eyes going wide and his mouth hanging ajar as he stared past Zuko.

Zuko turned slightly, trying to keep the Nanbu in his limited vision as he looked to see what impossibility it was that could actually make Sokka shut up.

Zuko blinked, twice, in surprise.

There, on a rise just at the edge of the battle, was a figure sitting atop some kind of enormous white animal and holding a rather simplistic battle-standard.

It was white, with an unadorned purple circle in the center.

Sokka, seeming to forget his wounded side, began casting around on the ground, eventually finding his own purple and white battle-standard. He hoisted it back into the air and began waving it from side to side.

"SHIN-JOOOOOOOO!" he screamed, a nearly jubilant smile splitting his blood-covered face.

And, wonder of wonders, the figure turned in their direction and hoisted their own battle-standard in response.

"Uuuu-taaa-kuuuu," came a faint voice in the distance.

A single voice that then rose in power and volume as a thousand more riders, lances covered in purple streamers, crested the rise and began moving north towards them with the deceptive slowness of a rising tsunami. The sound of accelerating ostrich-horses and shrieking coming in Zuko's direction was gradually, inexorably, buried by the rushing thunder of the enormous beasts, their oddly graceful loping movement producing a thunder unlike that of even heavy rhino-lizard cavalry.

"If you are even _partially_ alive, get on your feet!" Zuko roared, suddenly energized by the fleeting possibility of survival. He himself grabbed an abandoned yari with his unwounded arm and jammed it into the ground, point towards the now faltering and uncertain Nanbu charge. The few ambulatory soldiers around him gave a last burst of effort, picking themselves up and finding weapons, forming a ragged spear wall to Zuko's left and right.

"This is going to be close," Zuko growled.

Sokka just wheezed a hacking laugh, his face still caught in an exhausted rictus of a grin as he waved his battle standard, almost tauntingly, at the Nanbu while his eyes remained locked on the charging white and purple cavalry to his right angling to intercept. They thundered forward, impossibly fast for their size, their spears lowered in the front of the wave and a small but steady stream of arrows beginning to arc forward, launched from curved bows by Unicorn cavalrymen in the back and presaging their inevitable collision.

A collision that occurred not five yards in front of Zuko's ragged line of spears.

The enormous polarbear-dog mounted soldiers of clan Utaku slammed into the Nanbu like a wave crashing over a child's sandcastle; without seeming to notice or slow down. The lightly armored Nanbu were absolutely and immediately shattered. Those few that remained turned away, to try and wheel again and re-establish momentum, but were instead cut down by more arrows as the enormous white-mounted soldiers pursued them.

In two passes they were gone. Wiped from the badlands as though they had never been.

The bulk of the Utaku then began to veer east, towards the rear of the main Nanbu formation as a smaller group fell back and, with a slower and significantly less threatening pace, made their way to Sokka and Zuko's dead-laden hilltop.

"Hail, Shinjo," the standard-bearer said, nodding at Sokka from atop her now curiously sniffing beast.

"Hail, Utaku," Sokka said, trying to plant his banner and grin roguishly, but instead only managing to grimace and almost fall over.

"You're Hakoda's boy, right?" another, older, voice asked as they swung out of their saddle.

"Yep, that's me," Sokka said, still going for roguish but now beginning to look and sound as tired as he truly was.

The second figure strode forward and removed her helmet, revealing an older woman with gray hair, a windswept Water-Tribe face, and shockingly deep blue eyes.

"Well, _I'm_ Utaku Korra," she said, grinning a _truly_ roguish grin as her cavalry crashed into the rapidly dissolving Nanbu force behind her. "And the whole _lot_ of you owe me a drink."

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Chieftain Utaku Korra, Zuko decided, was his new favorite person.

Not just because she managed to combine a wry sarcastic wit with a sincere and obvious love for her polarbear-dogs.

Not just because she had managed to save Zuko and Sokka's lives by managing to be in just the right spot at just the right time.

Not just because she seemed to have absolutely _no_ qualms at all about working alongside the Fire-Nation.

Mainly, it was because she was the one who brought him back to Katara.

So, really, Zuko's _second_ favorite person.

But a very close second.

Katara managed, in that strange yet endearing way of hers, to combine indignant outrage and overwhelming relief at Zuko's "safe" return. Outrage that he had _dared_ to "allow" himself to get wounded, relief that it was not beyond her ability to heal. She saw to him personally, right after Sokka, who was in worse shape and had spent the entirety of the ride back to the rapidly re-establishing war camp muttering pained curses at every bound of the polarbear-dog, clutching at the bannerman from behind, his face locked in a perpetual wince.

As Zuko sat and waited his turn, reports filtered in to him from various officers and clerks. Casualties were bad, but not nearly as bad as Zuko had initially supposed given his own experiences. Not only had the dust and chaos prevented the Nanbu from fully exploiting the advantage of surprise, but the earthbenders, after hearing Zuko's cry of warning, had managed to raise reasonably effective defenses in relatively short order.

Not only that, but the Crane healers, after ferrying down from _The Princess Yue_ , were now proving that they were worth their weight not just in gold, but in lives as well.

Casualty reports, once disheartening, were rapidly amended by visibly stunned Fire-Nation officers as most incapacitating casualties were downgraded to full recoveries in a matter of hours.

Unfortunately, the figures of the dead would not be decreasing.

Despite that, Zuko found himself in rather high spirits. While he did not find pleasure in hearing just how many men he had lost, his blood seemed to ring with excitement, not just for his somewhat miraculous survival, but as his legion, far more rapidly than he could have hoped, pulled itself back together. The amount of damage that _could_ have been done was several orders of magnitude higher than what _had_ been done, and the buzz of an efficient well-ordered camp reverberated across Zuko's veins like singing.

The battle was over, but the _war_ had well and truly started, and no matter that he had been on the wrong side for some time, Zuko knew one thing very well.

He had been _made_ for war.

Despite the feelings of pride in his soldiers, his relief at not being dead, the still somewhat present battle-spirits, and his excitement at the potential tactical uses of a heavy cavalry unit as powerful as clan Utaku seemed to be, there was still one rather large and worrisome problem.

No one seemed to know where Aang was.

At first it was a minor concern, easily dismissed. After all the Avatar himself was not a part of anyone's chain of command and so obviously none of the formal reports would include him. Later, after the initial frenzy had died down in the wake of the arrival of the waterbending healers, it became a larger concern. Zuko had assumed that Aang was likely still in the air, possibly on the airship, but the Crane were certain that they had not seen him at all today.

Concern turned into a terrible disquiet when Zuko realized that he hadn't seen _Mai_ yet either.

To his relief he managed to find her before the Sun went down, talking slowly and quietly to a blanket-wrapped, rather dazed-looking, Ty Lee.

"Mai! There you are, where in the Sun's name have… you…" Zuko trailed away as Ty Lee looked up at him blankly and the blanket she had had over her head fell back, revealing her hair. She had always had incredibly long hair, and bound it tightly in a braid that hung down to the middle of her back.

Now, however, it was quite short, barely past her ears. Short and ragged.

The hair was the first sign that something was very wrong, her eyes were the second and more important one.

Zuko had seen those eyes before. During the siege of Doromuri when the assault had been particularly gruesome.

"Ty?" Zuko said quietly, crouching down and softening his tone immediately. "Are you alright?" Mai kept her eyes on Ty Lee and her hand in constant motion, rubbing soothing circles on her back.

"What?" Ty Lee asked. She cocked her head to the side slightly but her eyes seemed to have trouble finding and focusing on Zuko. "Me? Oh. No. I'm… fine." It almost sounded like a question as she smiled weakly and looked to Mai as if seeking confirmation.

Zuko paused for a moment, his somewhat fatigued mind eventually recalling when he had last seen Ty Lee.

Where, and with _whom_.

"…Ty? What happened?" Zuko asked, fighting against a now rising dread.

"Oh. You know," Ty Lee said distractedly. "Boom." She shrugged almost helplessly.

"Boom?" Zuko asked, and Mai shot him a warning glance.

"Yeah. Boom. I heard you… you were yelling about it," Ty Lee said, her eyes unfocusing further as though trying to recall the events of decades past. "You were yelling, and the… the old guy said… said something about… I don't… but, then there was a big _boom_ and there… there was fire. Fire and screaming and I… I couldn't do anything!" She looked at Mai again rising panic showing on her face. "Mai, I couldn't _do_ anything and it… it _hurt._ Oh… oh, spirits. It hurt! Why did… why doesn't it still… I couldn't… couldn't… DO anything… and… and…" she began to cry and Mai pulled her into her shoulder as she dissolved into tears.

"I found her in the waterbenders' tent," Mai said quietly, her voice in its normal monotone despite the circumstances. "They are amazing. She doesn't have a mark on her. But from the way her hair is missing…" She shook her head. "She must have been hit near to head-on. Whoever was with her…"

"Aang," Zuko said hoarsely. "Aang was with her."

"Uh-huh," Ty Lee said, nodding exaggeratedly into Mai's shoulder as she went even paler than normal.

Zuko leapt up and began walking as fast as he could without allowing his panic to show. His mind raced as he headed back to the command tent while the Sun sank below the horizon.

 _Ash! Oh, burning piles of ashy pitch and darkness! We've got to find him! He_ can't _be dead. Not after all of this! We'll go through those who are still unconscious… maybe… somebody didn't notice… his tattoos?_

Zuko's face broke into a snarl at his own idiocy.

 _Who am I kidding? The only way they wouldn't have was If he was completely… DAMNIT!_

It was only the knowledge that the Legion would suffer a demoralizing wave of panic upon seeing their commander in a full sprint that kept Zuko at just below a trot.

A trot which stopped in a skid, and the most powerful exhale of relief he had probably ever breathed, as he made it into the firelight outside the command area and discovered a still very _alive_ Aang.

A remarkably filthy Aang, that had half-collapsed on top of Katara, who was now making familiar soothing motions on his back as he sobbed.

Zuko, now very confused on top of being relieved, looked a question at Katara.

She mouthed a word at him above tearful eyes, and while it wasn't loud enough for him to hear, he certainly made out the word as his heart dropped into his stomach.

"Bumi."

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

The command tent stood in uneasy silence.

It was to be expected of course, they had been ambushed out of nowhere and lost one of the main cornerstones of their new strategy not fifty miles outside of Ba Sing Se. A great master, almost one-hundred-twenty-years-old to be sure, but a name that was known and respected almost anywhere in the world.

Kuni Bumi. Lord of Earth. Earthbending master. Mad genius.

The silence extended, not only at the loss of such an important and powerful ally, but at the implications for the rest of those still living.

An earthbending master, snuffed out in an instant…

…and the Avatar himself, knocked unconscious for the entirety of the battle.

The silence continued, in memoriam, until Zuko finally broke it.

"The immediate plan… has not changed," he said, calmly but with enough volume that many of the assembled officers and chieftains started in surprise. "We ride west. We engage where necessary. We liberate Omashu and capture the airships. None of that changes."

Arnook looked on the cusp of saying something, but quickly decided against as most of the table nodded unconsciously in agreement.

I want double sentry and patrols tonight," Zuko said leaning over the conference table, resting on his fingertips. "I doubt they will come back, but if they do… well, we will drive them away. Again."

 _Not the most inspiring speech,_ Zuko thought to himself, staring down at the table map of the Earth-Continent as the assembly began to bow and file out. _But then, I don't know what else to say. We all knew that the plan could change, that any of us could die at any moment._

Zuko sighed and looked up expecting to find the now silent tent empty.

And it was, except for Aang.

"We need to talk," Aang said, his grey eyes remarkably serene despite everything he had been through today.

Apparently he had regained consciousness, entirely unharmed, but under Bumi's corpse in the final minutes of the battle. The reason that no one had seen him is that, after he had discovered that there was nothing to be done and the battle concluded, he had taken Bumi's body up on a nearby bluff and buried him himself.

By hand.

Despite what Zuko assumed to be Katara's best efforts, there was still badlands dirt under his fingernails, and the two of them eyed one another from opposite sides of the conference table as a strange tension filled the otherwise empty tent.

"I don't think I can do this," Aang said eventually, a hint of sadness creeping through the serenity.

"Do… do what?" Zuko asked, despite being reasonably certain he already knew what.

"Fight a war," Aang said simply. "I don't know if I can…" he looked away. "All this violence, I don't think I… I can't do this. I think… I think I have to leave."

"Aang," Zuko growled, his temper working its way into the cracks exhaustion had made in his control, "you will _not_ just _abandon_ everyone who-"

"I don't want to abandon anyone," Aang continued, cutting Zuko off with a quelling gesture. "It's just… I don't know if… if _this_ is where I'm supposed to be. If _this_ is how I'm supposed to… to fight? I only saw the last few minutes of the battle and still…" He shook his head in a mix of disgust and embarrassment. "…I don't know if I'll be any good to you."

"Aang," Zuko sighed restraining his anger with a shake of his head, "you are the most powerful bender in the world. Just you _being_ here-"

"Gives everyone a false sense of security if I can't _do_ anything," Aang finished, looking miserable. "People are already talking out there. I can _hear them_ , in the wind. They're wondering what their chances are now that I, just _me_ , was knocked unconscious."

"Aang, it was… it was just bad luck," Zuko said. "Do you think that… that by _leaving_ you're going to make things better or worse?"

"No. I'm not… not really leaving… just… taking a different path," Aang said, an odd thoughtful look passing across his face. A look as though he was trying to remember the answer to a difficult riddle he had once heard. "Bumi, just before he passed, was talking about how, often time, different paths, the tunnel, the high road, the mountain valley, they all eventually lead to the same destination." That look of thoughtfulness increased as Aang nodded to himself, his grey eyes losing their focus for a moment. "At least I _think_ that was before."

"Aang, you are in shock," Zuko said, moderating his tone. "It's nothing to be ashamed of. You need to get some food and some sleep. Now is _not_ the time to make any big-"

"I'm leaving tonight," Aang said suddenly, nodding to himself again as if surprised to find himself in agreement with his own words.

"…The _ash_ you are," Zuko snarled after a moment, walking around the table and stalking towards him as he bristled. "You think you can just run away _again_?! From all of this?"

"Do you think you could stop me?" Aang asked. There was nothing in his voice, no fear, no sarcasm, not even any real curiosity, and Zuko drew up short to him.

"Aang…" Zuko ground his teeth together. "We've talked about this, _you_ have to be the one to-"

"Oh, I will," Aang said, suddenly smiling. "It's just… I have to do it _my_ way. You've got your path, and it's a good one. Stick to it. But it's… it's a _fire_ path. Which will work. For you, I mean. But I… I need to take a different one."

Zuko's jaw worked soundlessly as his brain tried to figure out exactly _what_ in the Sun's name was going on in the airbender's head, and what he could possibly say to counter the logic of someone who had obviously just had their very first concussion.

"I've… made up my mind," Aang said, again seemingly taken aback by his own words for a moment. Then he smiled confidently and put his hand on Zuko's shoulder. "But I promise, I'm _not_ running away. You and Toph taught me better than that. I'm just… taking a different path." He squeezed Zuko's shoulder and turned to go.

"And what should I tell… _everyone?_ " Zuko asked, trying to keep bitterness from his voice.

"Oh. Don't worry, I'll talk to them," Aang said, turning around and smiling at him again. "Otherwise that really _would_ be running away." He turned and took another step before stopping again. "You'll look after Appa for me?" he asked, sounding genuinely worried for the first time in the last few moments.

"You… you're not taking Appa?" Zuko said, blinking in surprise.

"No. I don't think so." Aang squinted suddenly as though looking at something in the far distance. "I have to walk a different path. A _new_ path. Appa… he's the old one. The old path." He turned back to Zuko again seeming mildly uncertain. "You will though? Take care of him? You're his favorite. After me of course."

"Of… of course. You…" Zuko hesitated. "You are _really_ sure about this?"

Aang stopped again, just outside of the command tent, illuminated in moonlight, and turned to look at Zuko, seeming to give the question all of his attention.

"I really am," Aang said, still sounding a touch surprised at the fact. The look on his face was much the same as it had been when he discovered that joy was just as much a part of firebending as rage.

It was a look that Zuko was certain he'd seen before, somewhere else… long, long ago.

It was the strangest sensation. He'd _had_ this conversation before. He felt it in his bones. There had been fear and rage, then confusion…

Then he had asked if… if he was sure…

"I am sure, Akodo," the Avatar said, bathed in blue-white light.

"Then… I will keep the peace," Zuko answered, bowing deeply over his fist, his voice seeming strange and rusty in his throat. "Until your return."

"I know you will," the Avatar said, that perpetually gentle smile on his face. "One way or another, you always do."

And with that, the Avatar disappeared into the night.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Zuko spent the rest of that night meeting with a steady stream of people coming to speak with him.

The Water-Tribe Chieftains were first, Hakoda and Korra and Arnook.

Strangely, there was no panic. No anger or condemnation. Whatever Aang had said to each of them had not only been brief, but had been so full of the same conviction that he had had with Zuko that not even dour Arnook had found something to be upset about. The conversations trended more towards continued integration of their disparate forces, plans for the future, and simple reassurances.

That seemed to be the theme throughout the night, reassuring one another.

Toph came next, grumbling about stupid airheads, but nonetheless reasonably calm.

Sokka made a joke about how Aang was not _entirely_ dissimilar to a boomerang. The phrase "Boomer-aang" was discussed in somewhat ridiculous detail as Suki rolled her eyes and smiled fondly at a still alive Sokka.

Yugoda, the older healer that had apparently taught Katara, stopped in ostensibly to check on how Katara's healing had managed on the arrow wounds Zuko had taken. She pronounced herself satisfied with the results, as well as Zuko's strategy, and then informed him that she had also reserved herself a "place in the line" with regards to Zuko's murder in the event of his hurting Katara.

But she said it with a smile, which Zuko took as a good sign.

Haki and both of the Uesugi brothers poked their heads in for all of a half a minute. Just long enough for each of them to give Zuko their own personal version of the phrase "the men are still with you."

The last was Katara.

Zuko was already in his cot when she staggered in, obviously fighting a wave of exhaustion.

She managed to get a single boot off before she "harrumphed" irritably at the other, and simply lay down next to Zuko otherwise completely dressed.

"Hey," Zuko said, mildly surprised at her presence. Generally speaking, in deference to Water-Tribe custom, she slept most nights in her own tent.

"Sleeping here now," Katara grumbled, rolling over and curling up against Zuko.

"I see that," Zuko said, not at all unhappily, "you are certain that your father-"

"Don't care," she muttered, shoving her hands, icy cold from being in the healing water all day, against Zuko's chest.

Zuko snorted in somewhat exhausted mirth, covered her with his blanket, and exhaled, raising his own body temperature for a few minutes.

Katara groaned in satisfaction, and somehow managed to wrap herself tighter around him as he bent the single tent's lantern out.

"…You are alright?" Zuko asked after a long moment.

"Mmhm," she answered. "Tired"

And then, just like that, she was asleep.

Zuko shook his head, not bothering to repress a smile, and managed to find sleep only a few minutes later.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

The camp was quiet the next morning as Zuko stoked the campfire nearest his tent and brewed himself a cup of tea.

Normally a Fire-Nation camp was a frenzy of activity by now. Tents were usually half-packed and rallying cries of sergeants, calling soldiers to assembly, would have filled the air before the Sun had come all of the way above the horizon. But on the morning after a hard-fought battle, with no other enemies on the horizon, things were different. The guard shifts had been doubled, but shortened, allowing the rank and file to catch as much sleep as they could. Allowing them to try and wash away that special brand of exhaustion that only comes from surviving.

Despite still feeling that particular exhaustion himself, Zuko was wide awake.

He'd never been very good at sleeping.

Despite that exhaustion hovering behind his temples, he felt alright. No matter that he'd lost two very important pieces from the board, the game was still far from decided. Even in the chilly morning light of the Earth-Kingdom badlands he felt, somehow even more strongly than a few days ago, that the war was still winnable.

 _I am calm._ He thought. _This is what calm feels like._

If someone had told him three years ago that it was the Avatar that would have given him this strange sense of peace, he probably would have laughed in their face.

Well, to be fair, _that_ Zuko would have probably just glowered and then ordered that someone thrown in the brig. For gross incompetence or possibly for being drunk on duty.

But, as it was, he had risen, full of that bizarre calm that he owed entirely to Aang, completed his meditations, his thousand cuts and practice forms.

Then he had fed Appa. A new ritual, a new responsibility.

Then he had come back here, to watch his fire, now red with his chi, and to make himself a cup of tea. While it _was_ just hot leaf juice, Katara was now a confirmed tea drinker and he had decided that he had better learn to brew a cup of tea that she might actually enjoy.

He had not been at all surprised at how delighted Iroh had been when he asked for his advice in that regard.

He was, however, remarkably surprised when Katara, his blanket wrapped around her, slumped next to him on the stone that he was using as a bench.

"Hey."

"you left," Katara said, irritation mostly subsumed in groggy exhaustion. "Got cold."

"Ah. I am sorry," Zuko said, wrapping an arm around her and bending her warm with another exhale.

They sat there for a moment, both staring at the fire.

"Do you want tea?" Zuko asked eventually, "Or do you want to go back to bed? This is a rest day so…"

Katara furrowed her brow and scrunched her nose in an adorable display of faux anguish at having to make a decision this early in the morning.

"Tea," she said finally. "I…" she yawned, "… need to go back to the healing tents to check on-"

"No. You do not," Zuko said firmly, releasing her and leaning forward to grab the tea kettle out of the fire. "Today is a _rest day._ General's orders."

"What if…" she yawned again, "…what if somebody needs me?"

"I am sure that Lady Yugoda and her students can handle whatever crops up," Zuko said, as he poured tea into one of his battered stone cups. He offered it to Katara who began to smile as soon as the odor hit her nose.

"You're sweet," she said, blowing ice crystals across the surface before taking a sip.

While Zuko was not certain he was actually getting better at brewing tea, Katara was certainly getting better at hiding the wince that his "bracing" tea inspired in most who drank it. Restraining a smile himself, Zuko poured another cup and the two of them sat in companionable silence for a few minutes as they sipped at their tea.

After Katara had had her standard two cups she groaned, escaping the arm Zuko had replaced around her as she rose to give an enormous stretch and another yawn. Afterwards her eyes, now open all the way, locked on Zuko, and a slow smile spread across her face.

"You know, maybe you were right. Maybe we _should_ go back to bed," she said in a low voice as she turned to face him.

"Oh?" Zuko said, the right side of his mouth curling upwards as well.

"Well, yes, I just don't know if what I did counts as sleeping. What with…" she looked down at the clothes she had passed out in, "…all of these _clothes_ on."

"You aren't worried about being cold anymore?" Zuko asked, reaching over to secure the blanket she had shed next to him, his eye still locked on hers.

"Well if I do, get cold that is, it will be _entirely_ your fault," Katara said in that same heated tone of voice as she began to move back toward Zuko's tent.

Zuko paused for a moment, looking around quickly to ensure that no one was observing the two of them, then crossed the gap between the campfire and his tent with unseemly speed, his blanket trailing behind him.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"You know… I'm really proud of you," Katara said her eyes half fogged with the afterglow.

"I learn best through practical experience," Zuko said with a grin.

Katara snorted. "That's not what I meant, grumpy-bear. I'm just glad you're so on board with this whole 'rest day' thing. I half expected to find you out there trying to make Aang and the Duke recover with _firebending._ " She chuckled at the very idea.

"…What?" Zuko said, his eye going wide as he went stock still.

"I mean I know that _I_ _know_ that you can't fix shock with exercise, but that's normally _your_ solution to everything."

 _Oh, fuck… he didn't?_

"Did… did Aang talk to you last night?" Zuko asked, his face now screwed up in a wince as his hand came up to massage the bridge of his nose.

"Yes?" Katara said, drawing the word out slightly in confusion as she rolled over to look at Zuko. "He told me about Bumi. Zuko, you _saw_ us-"

"No. After that."

"I… no? I went back to the healing tent after I handed him off to Toph and Suki."

 _Fuck._

"So… he didn't say anything about…" Zuko couldn't bring himself to finish.

"Say anything about…?" Katara's face had become stern.

 _Ash and burning bones, I am going to absolutely kill that little-_

"What was he supposed to _tell_ me, Zuko?" Katara asked, in a tone of voice that would have sent a lesser naked man running to the hills.

"He… he said… he _decided_ … that he needed to leave," Zuko said eventually.

 _Damnit,_ Zuko thought as Katara's face transitioned through severalexpressions of shock, disbelief, and outrage, _I really should have written down what HE said. It sounded WAY more convincing… somehow._

"He. Did. WHAT!?"

* * *

 **A/N:** **Well happy… (/checks calendar) May everybody! Boy how time flies when you're trapped in quarantine. Sorry again for all the deficiency of posts during your government-mandated alone time, finals week was a thing that still happened to me as well as my muse absconding with those sweet sweet inspirations that I need to survive.**

 **.**

 **Thanks for sticking with me, obviously you've read the chapter and made it this far and so you the gold star of participation from me, your favorite author who writes about a samurai version of Zuko. (Note within the note: if there IS another samurai-zuko fic out there please let me know, I'd love to give it a read.)**

 **.**

 **But we've tred this ground before, please comment, kudos, review and like. I don't NEED affirmation, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't enjoy it.**

 **.**

 **And for you few, you happy few, persons who read this far have some more of your favorite…**

 **.**

 **META-BITS**

 **.**

 **Nanbu Strategy:** **I have always tried to paint a picture in this fic of benders being rarer that their non-bending counterparts, hopefully that came through clearly, but if it did you may be asking yourself, "where did all those Nanbu firebenders come from if they were able to explode and ENTIRE army on the march?" And so I answer here in the bits o'meta, because that's what I do.**

 **.**

 **To whit, they DIDN'T have that many.**

 **.**

 **What they did instead is to tweak their firebending, much in the way Azula did in "The Chase" and make it more of a bigger flash-bang. Less damage, more distraction, fewer firebenders required. I feel like the whole sneaky Nanbu plan was started even before Zuko and the Legion crossed that way going east. Obviously, they were reasonably certain the he would pass back that way eventually, and so, not caring overmuch about the rebel "King" in BSS they just hung out until their moment came.**

 **.**

 **And from their perspective, it was a pretty rousing success. If not for the timely intervention of the Unicorn the rebel forces would have lost THREE major elements to their campaign, and probably would have gone from a major, to a minor, threat overnight. But that also brings us around to…**

 **.**

 **Utaku Korra:** **Yes. It's exactly what you're thinking… I think. (I don't know what you're really thinking, I'm not a mind reader) This is Korra's (the one of whom a LEGEND has been told) great-granny and the one she will be named for (should I ever get around to doing that segment of the series.)**

 **.**

 **On the L5R side of things, it is almost exactly what is says on the tin. The Utaku Battle-Maidens are the militant wing of the Utaku family, and entirely matriarchal organization, who have the biggest and best horses in all of Rokugon (the name of the nation in L5R, and boy isn't it weird that I haven't actually mentioned that yet in these author notes?) Obviously I swapped horse for "polarbear-dog" but honestly, I think we can all agree, that THAT is an UPGRADE.**

 **.**

 **Death:** **I told you it was happening, and this, unfortunately is only a small taste of what I have in store. I teased a LOT of deaths in this one, but I assure you, some of you WILL be unhappy with me by the end of this.**

 **.**

 **Aang's Departure:** **I think I have made no secret of my hatred for the Lion-Turtle. I dislike deux ex machina and that damned turtle was almost a textbook example. Maybe, I thought to myself, if they had given me the story of Wan BEFORE that point I'd have been more forgiving, but in ATLA as stands, I HATE the dragon-turtle.**

 **.**

 **I get that Aang needs to change. He needs a way to stay true to his beliefs and still do his Avatar duties. I don't even have a problem with the "spirit-bending" but not the way they did it. So, MY Aang is going to have to go on a journey. He will depart, alone and barefoot into the wilderness of the spirit realm and emerge…** _ **changed.**_ **Classic Hero's Journey stuff here.**

 **.**

 **But then, why didn't he say goodbye to Katara?:** **Because, he finally figured out that he needed to** _ **let go.**_ **And I think he knew that facing her down, telling her, would have been much harder on her than it was on him. I don't think he could have done whatever mystical thing he did to Zuko and the others, I don't think she would have accepted that. So, he left, probably watched her heal for a little while before he did, but then (/deep exhale) he let her go.**

 **.**

 **And that's the first step he had to take on his journey to true enlightenment.**

 **.**

 **Thanks again for reading! I hope you'll stick around for the rest, whenever that happens to be.**

 **.**

 **.**

 **NEXT TIME on a very special "Avatar: The Last Dragon"...**

 **The war continues, people die, and there is more crying.**

 **TUNE IN. Some random Zuko time, but same Zuko channel!**

 **Original post date: 7 May 2020**


	20. The Battle of Rising Mist and Stone

**A/N: The Following is rated G; for Grief.**

 **It takes place, chronologically, somewhere during the series finale S3E18-21 "Sozin's Comet."**

 **Reader discretion is advised.**

* * *

Chapter 20: The Battle of Rising Mist and Stone

* * *

 **Spring, Year 13 in the reign of Fire-Lord Ozai**

The fog rose from the river before them, and fell over the land like a heavy blanket, covering everything in a thick muffled silence.

"The stillness before battle is unbearable. Such a quiet dread," Chief Arnook said, coming up beside Zuko on the rise overlooking what was soon to be a field of battle. "Yet again we must stand and wait. Wait for the Fire-Nation. Wait for the end."

"…Well, _that's_ pretty fatalistic," Katara said after a moment. She leaned forward and fixed the Crane with a somewhat beady look from Zuko's other side. "Do you say that before _every_ battle?"

"…I wouldn't expect a _woman_ to understand-"

"Doji Barahime," Zuko interjected, his eye still on the field in front of him, trying its very best to _not_ roll in its socket. "That quotation, unless I am very much mistaken, was written by one of your tribe's greatest poets… and a woman. Surely someone able to so accurately describe the tension before battle is worthy of our respect."

Arnook snorted in mild disdain, then walked away to check on his troops, many of whom were engaged in raising the thick mist that was still billowing out of the river.

"Ash. He is _such_ an icehole," Katara said quietly.

"Katara," Zuko sighed, finally giving in to his desire to roll his eye at the two of them, "I would appreciate it if you would stop antagonizing him. You managing to convince his 'retainers' to take part today was already pushing him a bit far."

Katara smiled in remembered triumph as she looked down at the dozen or so blue-clad waterbenders summoning mist out of the river Kyokai.

"You can't possibly think he'll leave? After everything?"

"I think that after you called him out last week, in front of the whole war-council I might add, he's going to start looking for an excuse to do so." Zuko shook his head. "He does not _like_ me, Katara."

"To be fair, you _could_ try to be a bit more likeable. Barking orders works _some_ of the time, but other times…"

"I'm not Aang," Zuko said grimly. "I can't just _say_ a thing and expect people to believe in me. People _don't_ like me."

"First of all, that's not even remotely true. When you speak, people really _listen,_ even if they don't like what you have to say. Secondly… well… _I_ like you."

"And you, hearth of my heart, are very odd."

"You're so sweet," Katara said, now rolling _her_ eyes as she shook her head in mild exasperation. "You and Sokka really need to stop comparing notes. The bothof you sound like ancient Gramp-Gramps."

"And I promise, if he ever calls Suki his 'snuggle-bunny,' I will," Zuko said, his lone eye still sweeping the rapidly assembling forces below them.

They both stood there for a long quiet moment, enjoying each other's company, as well as the last calm moments they would have before the battle began and the ringing tension in the morning air imploded into the crash and roar of pitched violence.

"…how _did_ you know where that quote was from?" Katara asked after a moment.

"I do _read_ you know," Zuko said with a snort. "At least, I _used_ to. Back when I had anything that even vaguely resembled free time. Poetry can be rather evocative in some of our otherwise dry military texts. Lady Barahime was actually best known for her commentaries on the other nations and dojo, from back in the old days, when we were only trying to kill each other _some_ of the time. Uncle had me read one of her books when I was studying water-style."

"Oh? What did she say about the Fire-Nation?"

"Mostly rather rude things, she was generally considered to be rather tactless, if truthful. As I recall, she said that the Lion dojo was 'hard-working, staid, and honorable.'"

"Well… that doesn't sound too bad."

"She went on to say that she had a polarbear-dog with the same qualities."

"Ouch."

"Indeed. Teenage Zuko was less than impressed."

The conversation halted for a moment as, with a ground-shaking thump, the earthbending contingent below them erected several long barriers on the future line of battle, and then began to bend the small breaches that Zuko had asked for.

"…What do you think about polarbear-dogs?" Katara asked, breaking the silence again.

"I think I have been rather effusive in my praise for the Utaku battle-maidens. Perhaps _too_ _much_ so," Zuko said with a wry shake of his head. "Lady Utaku keeps mentioning that, should you and I ever part ways, she has a wide assortment of granddaughters…"

"Uh-huh. Not what I meant though. I just meant the animals themselves."

"They are, as Lady Barahime said, hard-working, staid, and honorable."

"So… you like them?" Katara said, now glancing at him out of the corner of her eye.

"…Why?" Zuko asked, an alarm gong suddenly ringing in his head.

"What about… puppies?"

"…No."

"No, you don't like puppies, or…"

"No, as in we are in the middle of a _war_ , and I already have one giant slobbery creature to feed and care for." Zuko jerked his head towards Appa who was still waiting patiently about twenty paces behind them. "And he seems like the jealous type," Zuko continued.

"Well, I didn't mean _now._ I meant… after."

"…After?" Zuko asked, his lone eyebrow rising in surprise.

"After," Katara said with a nod.

There was another long pause. Katara remained ostensibly focused on the soldiers below, spearmen beginning to take up positions and earthbenders still working to modify the barricades they had previously erected. Zuko on the other hand turned and looked at her, mildly aghast.

"…Now?" he said in a muted growl. "You want to talk about… 'after' _now_?"

"No," Katara said, still blatantly focused on the future battlefield despite the small flush that was rapidly appearing at her cheeks. "It just something to _think_ about."

Zuko sighed with a heavy exhale, turned back to the battlefield, and slowly re-shelved all of his previously thought-out conversational strategies regarding moving beyond being "just a boyfriend." Hakoda had begun to make pointed, albeit subtle, comments in war meetings about propriety and mutual respect for customs, despite the fact that Zuko had assured him, repeatedly, of his intentions towards his daughter.

The daughter that, in spite of her own customs, spent every night in Zuko's tent.

But he had promised to move at whatever speed Katara wanted, and so he shifted gears and instead began to imagine a litter of enormous four-legged creatures rampaging through the halls of the palace at Otosan Uchi; peeing on rugs older than his swords…

 _Absolutely not._

…chewing on the tapestries in the Royal Gallery…

 _Well… they can have father's… and Sozin's. I'll give them that._

…chasing terrified members of the Daijo-Kan around the ornamental gardens…

 _Hmmm._

"…It's not a _terrible_ idea," Zuko muttered, mostly to himself.

"There's the signal," Katara said pointing down the hill. "You'd better get going."

"Indeed," Zuko said with a grunt, shrugging his shoulders back and snapping his thoughts away from the mental image of former Minister of War Quin, fleeing in terror from a pack of baby war-dogs. "Be safe," he said, raising Katara's gauntleted hand to his lips, delivering his now customary pre-battle kiss before stalking down the hill towards the mixed force of samurai. Katara turned the opposite direction and clambered up on to Appa along with the rest of her cargo, quickly taking off with a snap of the reigns.

To say that the four months since the battle just outside Ba Sing Se, the "Battle of Dust and Snow" as the scribes were now calling it, had been turbulent would be something of an understatement. While the loyalist Fire-Nation legions stationed on the continent had not been fast enough to intercept Zuko's eastern passage, they certainly _had_ been fast enough to take up good defensible positions in anticipation of his inevitable return, digging in and fortifying themselves at good strategic chokepoints and overlooks with standard Fire-Nation efficiency.

However, much to Zuko's normal mix of relief and annoyance when fighting his countrymen, they simply took those positions… and then _waited._ Waited for Zuko to come to _them_ , surrendering both their agency and their strategic momentum to their smaller, but far quicker, adversary.

The series of very timely modifications Zuko had made to their lone airship (which no longer went _anywhere_ near any battle group that had any chance of damaging it) had allowed Zuko to increase the Legion's maneuverability and, for brief tactical bursts, to almost _double_ their overall marching speed.

This speed allowed Zuko to absolutely _savage_ his inert and almost listless opponents by sweeping around, through, and, on one notable occasion, _under_ them.

Despite this fact, and the string of victories it facilitated, at no point whatsoever had any of the loyalist generals shown _any_ inclination towards simply combining their forces in such a way as to make victory a certainty, _or_ even simply attempting to work together. They _should_ have simply tried to swamp him with the sheer force of numbers. Zuko had been _prepared_ for that, one of the reasons he had even made the modifications to the airship to begin with, and he had spent the first few battles on the figurative edge of his seat, prepared to engage in a rapid tactical withdrawal at the sudden appearance of overwhelming force.

But it never happened, much to Zuko's continued chagrin and irritation.

He still wasn't entirely certain whether his opponents had been motivated by arrogance, idiocy, or sheer honor-born bloodymindedness, but given the continued strategic incompetence Zuko encountered day after day he had gradually become comfortable (albeit vastly irritated) with engaging any force that was less than _twice_ his size with the expectation of emerging with total victory.

They had fought eight major battles since that dusty initial ambush in the winter of the previous year, and more than three-dozen skirmishes of greater and lesser degree, and every single one of them was a victory to one degree or another. It was a measure of just how much fighting they had done that, even with their increased speed, it had taken them an extra month to make it here, one of the last Earth-Kingdom provinces, still east of the Colonies.

Mai's spies had begun writing of nervous muttered conversations in the upper echelons of power, and of staff officers tearing their hair out at the seeming invincibility of the "Legion of the White Lion."

Zuko had immediately declared the contents of the war-council meeting where Mai had dropped _that_ particular appellation classified. To the very _highest_ degree.

Not that _that_ had stopped the name from spreading.

 _Or_ had stopped the Duke from following Zuko around the camp the next week with a battle standard featuring a black and white depiction of the lion that was the Akodo family mon.

Sokka thought it was hilarious. He found it significantly _less_ so after Koshaku tried to follow Zuko into battle with it and _Katara_ found out.

She had taken a great, somewhat vindictive, pleasure in making Sokka carry the banner himself for the rest of the battle, which Zuko, very quietly, had thought was hilarious.

But it had not all been impressive victories and embarrassing names (that had, despite his best efforts, spread through the entire legion like wildfire.)

Aang's absence was easy enough to explain, his location was, very plausibly, a highly guarded "secret." The Avatar was easily accepted as the key to everything, and nobody who heard the phrase "highly guarded secret" would immediately assume that that also meant "we have no idea."

It had been four months and they still had had no word. Katara alternated between rage and half-panicked worry depending on the day, and who it was that mentioned Aang's name.

Bumi's death, on the other hand, had been very problematic.

Earth-Kingdom samurai, the more traditionally minded ones that had not been drawn by Toph's rapidly growing fame, were noticeably skeptical about following the general that had brought down the walls of their formerly impenetrable capital city. This skepticism might have been overcome by the presence of one of the great Earth-Lords in Zuko's war council but, given Bumi's absence, recruitment had dried up almost entirely. While the Crane healers did an admirable job, they could not fix everything, and casualties were eventually going to become a problem.

Which was why Zuko was now here, striding down a hillside towards a foggy riverbank, the shadow of Shiro Toritaka looming above it in the middle distance, and several hundred miles away from their original route.

The battle line in front of him, assembled on the western side of the river Kyokai, was a rapidly assembling mix of spearmen, archers and earthbending samurai in the black and white armor of Zuko's legion, those last indistinguishable from their firebending compatriots but for the green wakizashi at their sides. Toph's troops, native earthers, and formerly "lost" colonials alike, looked, worked, and, most importantly, _fought_ like Fire-Nationers.

Zuko grinned at the sight, reasonably certain that Sozin's ashes were spinning in the family grave.

It had been an unexpected blessing when Lord Toritaka's missive had arrived at Zuko's camp a few weeks ago via an extremely bedraggled messenger. The letter had contained a surprisingly cordial greeting and expressed Lord Toritaka's passing interest in the idea of cooperation against their mutual enemies. It had also, in somewhat typical earther fashion, lamented that he might be a bit slow in coming to terms with Zuko, owing to the fact that… he was currently trapped in his fortress, being besieged.

Only a Crab would write it so offhandedly.

So, after some brief deliberation with the assembled war-council, Zuko had veered the army north, away from the Hebi river and towards Shiro Toritaka. It was deemed a practical as well as symbolic maneuver, showing that not only could Zuko be counted on to defend the interests of foreign elements which only _might_ join his cause, but that he was willing to do so while fighting his own countrymen.

So, now all he really had to do was to pry the famous Bayushi Takeda's hands off the castle.

General Takeda was the younger brother of Lord Bayushi, and was renowned in both the Fire-Nation and the Earth-Kingdom for his skill as a general and his outstandingly well-trained cavalry force. As one of the very few members of the Scorpion dojo to be admitted to the staff of the War College, he was an advocate of meeting strength with strength, crushing the strongest points of an enemy first to demoralize the rest. His heavily armored rhino-lizards were trained to go right _through_ earthbent bulwarks and, where they could not, the lighter, faster, ostrich-horse companies, equipped with iron-shod talons, were trained to simply go _over_ them. Takeda's entire force was designed, trained, equipped, and prepared to face defensively-minded earthbenders in battle. The tactical culmination of over a hundred years of fighting in the Earth-Kingdom.

Zuko was hoping he could make that work for _him_ in this instance.

"Are we ready, Colonel!" Zuko shouted, more for show than any real answer. He knew what the answer _ought_ to be.

"Fuck yeah we are!" Toph shouted back, slamming one gauntleted fist into the other and grinning an intensely malevolent grin.

She had been practicing that grin, Zuko had been helping.

"You're sure about this?" she asked more quietly after the surrounding soldiers had cheered and returned their focus to the east. "I can't believe Katara was ok with…"

"As sure as I ever am about anything," Zuko muttered back.

"If these barriers don't hold…"

"If your _soldiers_ don't hold, you mean? Somehow, I think we both know your answer to _that_ question.

The two of them stopped and Zuko gazed out at the field around them, the flat muddy ground and the river ahead shrouded in fog and visible through the gaps between the perforated earthen barriers.

Then Zuko blinked as an errant thought suddenly burst in his brain.

"Have you gotten taller?" he asked, turning to examine the still tiny, but possibly _less_ tiny, earthbender, trying to decide if she was now approaching his shoulder thanks to the illusion of size that good armor gave, or through natural growth.

Toph snorted. "I swear, you must save all your gravel-chewing powers of observation for fighting, don't you?"

"So… that's a yes?"

"That's a 'you're dumb and your fucking sister _dresses you_ funny.' Did you really think I was gonna-" she cut off abruptly, her head snapping to the right and her toes wiggling in the dirt of the field.

"They are coming," Zuko said, only half a question as his eye began sweeping the fog again.

"Yep," Toph said simply and then turned away pitching her voice into a shout. "ALL RIGHT, ICEHOLES! YOU KNOW THE DRILL! You fuck this up and I am _personally_ going to shove each of your heads UP your respective-"

"Never thought somebody so tiny would be so good at shouting at people," Matsu Haki said with a chuckle, appearing at Zuko's left as Toph strode away.

"She has grown recently," Zuko said with a nod of approval. "Or so she tells me."

"Yeah. Starting to fill out that uniform a bit," Haki said with another chortle.

Zuko turned slowly and glared up at the taller man with a malevolence that Toph was only beginning to capture.

"Right. Sorry, sir," Haki said, drawing himself up to an even greater position of attention. "What position are we taking, sir?"

"I will be in the center, Colonel. You should-"

"Probably stay with _you,_ sir? Good idea," Haki interjected.

"Are you under the impression that I require a _nanny_ , Colonel," Zuko snapped as he began to move to the center of the formation.

"No, sir," Haki said following closely in his wake.

"… are you _afraid_ of me, Colonel?" Zuko asked, a slight growl in his voice as he wove through almost completely assembled spear companies.

"Yes, sir. Very much, sir," Haki said flatly, his pace not faltering in the slightest.

"… and you are aware that Shosuro Mai is my _subordinate?"_

"Yes, sir."

"Not the other way around?"

"Very aware, sir."

"So when _I_ say that we need to spread our firebending assets out around the field…"

"I understand you completely, sir," Haki said, nodding in an attempt at sagacity as they both reached Zuko's appointed place near the center of the formation.

"… and yet, you are still here," Zuko said, his normal scowl deepening.

"Well, sir…" Haki made a great show of looking around for a moment, "…this seems as good a spot as any."

 _This is why he waited until now to show up. Or more likely why Mai_ told him _to wait until it was too late._

"Fine," Zuko snarled, the rage he kept locked up in the pits of his stomach beginning to seep out into his voice as the first ranks of enemy slowly emerged from the fog, "just stay _out_ of my way."

Rhino-lizards were naturally enormous creatures, and Takeda's were some of the largest of the lot. They were bred for strength, and sheer bulk, and the dim light of the Sun shining through the overcast sky did not glint off the ironclad horns of the beasts so much as simply illuminate them, a great grey wall of iron and muscle appearing out of the fog. Row upon row of heavy cavalry, advancing at a deceptively sedate pace, materialized out of the dense mist, filing across the bridge that Zuko could no longer see and spanning almost the length of Zuko's barricaded line of battle. Further ranks of ostrich-horse companies appeared in patches behind them, flitting in and out of the fog, the battle-standards of their riders hanging limp in the moisture of the air.

 _See the barricades, Takeda. Treat us like earthers. Make the assumption…_

Just at the edge of hearing Zuko could hear shouted commands, incomprehensible at this distance, drumbeats and shouts relaying orders up and down the line…

 _We're a bunch of earthbenders here. Come get us!_

And then, almost as though Zuko had sent the order himself, the rhino-lizards started forward, their enormous bulk slowly accelerating into a terrifying crash of sound and shuddering ground.

Stones began to fly forward from the earthbending contingent, a few striking the enemy but most falling far short, reinforcing the illusion that Zuko had created.

There would be no fire… not yet.

 _Wait… Closer…_

The key to zanshin, to good tactics, was patience. Iroh had made that lesson clear, and now Zuko waited until the sound of charging cavalry grew into a thunderous cacophony and the enemy crossed the invisible line he had drawn in his head.

Then, he began to move.

There were not many things Zuko hated.

Rage was one thing. There were many things that deserved his anger, but _hate_ , he had discovered, was another thing entirely.

It was cold. Icy. Quiet almost. Singular in its purpose and _unique_ in its intensity.

And so the kata Zuko began did not look anything like what the rest of his family would have done.

Azula had made it look graceful, a gathering of power that would inexorably burn its way through any and all that opposed her. A statement of pride and power.

Iroh had made it look formulaic, like it was simply an onerous chore that, for its own sake, had to be accomplished. A man gathering refuse from a field so that it could be used productively.

Ozai had made it look easy, like hate was always right there at his fingertips, a breath away from manifesting and ripping its target apart.

Like he hated everything.

Zuko made it look the same way he felt when he had finally managed it.

Wild. Feral. The savage dance of one in the throes of murder or being murdered. Like a madman, cursing the sky and expecting the Kami themselves to fall over dead.

Like a stupid boy who, even after everything, just wanted his father to be proud of him.

And he _hated_ that.

Hated it _so_ much.

Which was why, after years of futility, he had finally gotten it to work.

 _ **You have…**_

He would never have dared try this when he had known there was still a demon in him. Still a malevolent force latched on to his soul that could and, he was sure, _would_ have pounced in this moment.

… _ **redeemed yourself…**_

The tension of split chi roiled through Zuko, making his skin tingle, and his beard feel like it was standing on end.

… _ **my son.**_

Ozai had called Zuko his son. He hadn't done that in _years_ and the small inkling of pleasure that Zuko _still_ felt in the remembrance of that moment made him so, _so,_ sick to his stomach.

He HATED it.

And it made him release every ounce of control, every barrier swamped, every objection dismissed, and his rage fermented in his stomach, transmuting fire to ice.

 _Fuck you, dad._

And so… there was…

 **CRACK-A-**

 _Lightning._

The scream that Zuko let out was not the roar of thunder, not the cry of battle, not a snarl of anger.

 _Lightning._

It was a terrible ripping thing that hurt his throat and sounded more like a cry of pain.

 _Lightning._

In the moment, he was never sure which was the louder; his voice, the echoes of his father's, or the scream of the lightning itself as its unbelievable power roared through his nerves and out of his fingertips.

 _ **Lightning.**_

 **-BOOOM!**

The lightning burst from Zuko's fingers, two outstretched, and arced and forked like manifest terror through the gap in the barricades directly in front of him. It slammed into one of the wedges of iron-shod rhino-lizards, leaping from beast to soldier to beast like a thing both alive and hungry.

Like **Lightning.**

"Here I am," Zuko snarled through heaving breaths, "come and _get_ me."

He meant it for General Takeda almost as much as he meant it for his father, and as half a company of badly singed rhino-lizard cavalry fell over in either death or incapacitation every archer and firebender in Zuko's legion let loose a volley.

The first of many.

The charge of the rhino-lizards, already impeded by the soggy ground near the riverbank, slowed even further as wave after wave of synchronized fireblasts and arrows hammered into them. Despite that, or perhaps in spite of it, they still hit the stone barricades with another enormous crash.

…and found them _far_ more stable than they should have been.

Earthbenders could make their element incredibly strong and stable, almost _impenetrable_ with enough skill, Toph had explained to him. But, in doing so, they could not attack with it. They, and it, had to remain still and stable. The art of earthbending, much like the tactics Zuko had learned, was at its core the art of learning when to move and when to wait.

So the earthbenders held fast, held the stone barricades steady in the face of the furiously lowing rhino-lizard horde, while firebenders launched volley after volley of fire through the holes in those barricades that had been bent for this exact purpose.

 _Teamwork is the key to any successful operation._

And so fire burned as stone waited, and the rhino-lizard charge was brought to a complete halt and savaged by precise volleys of firebending. Seeking either to escape the onslaught, or to simply extract some measure of revenge on their enemies, the heavy cavalry naturally began to gravitate away from the unyielding stone and towards the gaps in between those stone barricades.

Gaps that were entirely packed with heavily armored yari-spearmen, set, waiting, and infinitely more dangerous than simple stone.

Cries of frustration slowly gave way to cries of dismay as cavalrymen were dismounted and mounts slain by spear and fire and arrow as volley after volley slammed into them. Brief flashes of fire marked the presence of enemy firebenders among the enemy, but while they could easily slap away the small blasts of fire from their nominal countrymen, they could not simply slap away the leafhead arrow or the foot of steel that was a yari-blade.

Zuko, after he had recovered his root and his breath in the wake of the lightning, had joined in the volley fire alongside Haki. While the lightning was effective, it, as was the nature of all uncontrolled, _wild_ , fire, was indiscriminate in its affections and not suited for use where the enemy had already made contact with his own forces. Not only that, but it, like the firewall Ganko, was far too draining, both physically and emotionally, for Zuko to perform repeatedly. It had already served its intended purpose, drawing the enemy's focus to the center of the formation.

So Zuko, alongside Haki, settled into a rhythm of percussive fireblasts with the rest of his men until a new discordant sound flooded across the battlefield. Seemingly as one, the ostrich-horse companies, which had remained floating in and out of the fog at the riverside leapt forward with a far greater acceleration than their lizard compatriots. They flowed away from the river like water from a smashed pitcher, the war-cries of their riders harmonizing with their mounts' infuriated sounding squawking.

 _Good choice,_ Zuko thought as his normal, mildly-terrifying, battle-grin crept on to his mangled face.

He had anticipated this phase of the battle, but had assumed that General Takeda would try to withdraw his heavy troops using the lighter ones as a screen to prevent pursuit. Sending all of his forces at once was a rash, if understandable, gambit, but it was also one that played into Zuko's strategy quite well.

At least it would, but only if all the disparate moving pieces of his war-machine could get into their positions quickly enough.

After a brief mental count, assuring himself that Takeda had completely committed all of his ostrich-horse companies to the charge, Zuko stopped firing and, with a leap and a shout, launched a sky-burst of fire into the air, hoping against hope that the fog he had ordered conjured along the riverside did not prevent the Utaku, hidden in the forest on the other side of the river, from seeing or hearing it.

He knew that Katara at least, who he could see faintly circling the battlefield at a great height, would see it, but if she delivered her payload, two-dozen parachute-laden Kyoshi Warriors, too quickly, they most assuredly would be swamped by superior numbers.

Given the necessities of a siege, Zuko knew that General Takeda would be forced to divide his forces. He would need to attack and disperse Zuko's relieving force, while at the same time leaving adequate forces at the gate of Shiro Toritaka to ensure that the garrison did not escape or, even worse, attack them in the flank.

Given that his sightlines had been revealed to be blocked by the "sudden" heavy fog over the river he would also need to leave a series of messengers across the bridge to ensure continued communication between the divided elements of his army.

Messengers that would be dispatched by the Kyoshi warriors at approximately the same time that the Utaku Battle-Maidens slammed into the detachment on the east side of the river.

Thus, hopefully, Takeda would be taken completely by surprise when the Unicorn forces came pouring over the bridge he had thought secure, hitting him right in the hindquarters and trapping him, as the earthers liked to say, between a rock and a hard place.

 _Well, not completely trapped,_ Zuko thought to himself as he resumed blasting fire with the rest of the legion. He had deliberately ordered the barricades angled slightly, allowing a natural escape route for his enemy to the north. It was one of his uncle's favored strategies that, on the surface at least, seemed overly merciful but actually served a rather pragmatic strategic purpose.

If you gave an enemy nowhere to run, they would have no _choice_ but to fight to the death, and like a cornered animal, there was no enemy more dangerous than one that felt it had nothing left to lose.

Everything seemed to be going to plan however, even as the ostrich-horses hit the battle-line with a thud and a squawk and began trying to scale the stone barricades, Zuko's confidence remained high.

At least it did until he saw Toph in his field of vision, launching herself through the air, away from the strong right flank and towards the north side of the battlefield.

Where, to Zuko's shock, he could now see another red-clad force rapidly advancing on their position.

His feet turned almost immediately to follow her, even as his brain froze in shock for a few moments, its wheels spinning pointlessly for a few moments before snapping back into gear.

 _I KNOW I counted eight companies of ostrich-horse,_ he thought angrily. _That's exactly how many they HAD! Who in the Sun's holy name is THIS? Takeda doesn't have any allies north of here! It's all wildlands and people who hate him!_

 _That's how many companies Mai's reports SAID they had,_ he thought, countering himself as he continued to move. _If_ I _knew that someone was coming for me, I very likely would have hidden a company or three out in the wildlands, out of sight of an enemy that I KNOW has flying capabilities._

… _Clever._ Zuko's savage grin reappeared as he charged north to catch up with Toph. _Now let's see if you can out-clever the Blind Bandit._

Toph, obviously having sensed the new enemy first, reached the left flank of the army a fair amount of time before anyone else. Zuko, with Haki still in tow, trailed in her wake, and the detached cavalry company that Zuko had placed in the rear of the formation for emergency relief had begun to move in that direction as well. Spearmen that had been fighting the trailing edge of the rhino-lizard charge began to wheel and set their spears at a new angle as Toph cratered into the landscape.

But, for the moment, Toph stood alone. A still small girl in black and white armor, alone, as a further _three_ companies of ostrich-horse came flying out of the north, bearing down on her.

It reminded Zuko of nothing so much as the time she had faced down the entire cast of Earth Rumble VI, her posture confident and unafraid as she reached out and grabbed the land itself with a wrenching grasping motion.

The earth shuddered like a sheet being shaken out in preparation for being folded, or the prey of a wolf-bat being shaken to death in its jaws, and the large riding birds jumped into the air with the force of it, a number of them losing their balance and disappearing in a burst of red under the metal-tipped talons of the ones behind them.

But not anywhere near all of them, and the rest thundered onwards, samurai in red, with the four diamonds of Takeda's personal guard emblazoned on the chests, screaming high-pitched battle-cries that blended seamlessly with their mounts'.

"Ramp!" Zuko roared as he made it through the now settling spear formation, and Toph obliged him with a shout, bending an earthen ramp behind herself, allowing Zuko to charge up it, leap over her head and, with a shout of his own, send a wave of thunder into the charging cavalry, blunting their charge just enough for him to grab the suddenly squawking earthbender and sprint, bursts of fire from his feet propelling him, back to the now set line of spears.

This, while effective in keeping Toph from being run over by several hundred tons of ostrich-horse, proved to be a tactical blunder on Zuko's part, something he only realized as he finished pulling the now violently cursing girl to the rear of the formation.

The last thing that he should have done was draw the focus of battle here, to what was now the weakest point of his line of battle.

He had already purposely given his position away at the beginning with the lightning, to draw attention to the center of the formation, where he wanted it.

But there was _also_ only one person who was known to be able to bend thunder.

And that one person was him. The same person that, if killed, would likely spell the end of the Sengoku, the destruction of the Earth-Continent…

…And immeasurable honor for the one who took his head.

Fortunately, it was a gradual thing. The Takeda line of battle shifted slowly, cavalry forces that had been pressing into the packed masses of Zuko spears drifting northward towards the now highly attractive weakened flank. Earthbenders there, that had previously only had to focus on maintaining the barricades, were gradually forced to divert their attention to their immediate survival.

The protective earth barricades began to crumble under the still present iron-shod horns of the rhino-lizards.

The fighting grew more and more pitched on the flank as ostrich-horses slammed into the yari-spearwall again and again, gouts of fire and stone and blood fountaining all around. Rhino-lizards began to trickle past the crumbling barricades in ones and twos, and wreaked havoc on the spear formation until Toph and Zuko threw themselves bodily at them, practically heavy cavalry themselves, as they burned, smashed, cut, and buried the enormous beasts and their riders.

Yet, even _they_ were forced to give ground, step by blood and mud-soaked step.

It might have all ended there.

If the thudding crash of howling polarbear-dog colliding with squawking bird and lowing lizard hadn't sounded to their right.

Just in time.

The tide of battle shifted again, still towards the north and the left flank of the battle line, but now towards the path of retreat Zuko had left them, gradually becoming a full rout.

And that might have been the end of it, but the cheers of victory, the most honest sounds of life Zuko knew, were suddenly silenced as the entirety of the legion froze in abject surprise.

It seemed to be that almost the entirety of the river Kyokai was now airborne, drifting through the sky behind Appa and the single figure standing upright, bending it aloft.

 _What is the ash is she do-_

Even Zuko's mind froze as the floating river suddenly shattered into spears of ice, the volleys of several daikyu companies worth, and fell like monsoon rain on the retreating cavalry forces, impacts and screams audible even at a distance, slamming into them like the edicts of an angry Kami.

"Begging your pardon, sir," Haki said, still working to catch his breath. "But, why didn't we _start_ with that?"

"Because _that_ is a hundred lives she won't be able to save tonight," Zuko answered quietly, giving voice to his confusion.

Eye locked on Appa, who was descending in his direction, Zuko strode out of the formation and into the intervening space, walking around corpses without even looking.

Appa was not even down a heartbeat before Katara, eyes red with tears, was on the ground and sobbing awkwardly into Zuko's armored chest.

Utterly bewildered, Zuko wrapped his arms around her as best he could, making their armor squeak slightly as he did so, and for a long moment there was only that sound and her muted crying. Then Toph exhaled in a low hiss, as though all of the wind had been knocked out of her. Zuko, his arms still around his sobbing girlfriend, looked over his shoulder and saw that Toph had gone as pale as wax and was now rocking her head back and forth in a manner that suggested that she was looking for something with her earthbending senses.

With a sickening lurch, Zuko's fatigued brain latched on to an unfortunately probable explanation.

"Sokka…" he began, unable to continue, unsure if he would be able to finish without breaking away from her and beginning to mindlessly chase after the still retreating Takeda forces himself.

"Sokka's…" Katara started, still weeping, "Sokka's… b-back at the bridge. With… with…" she cut off breaking down into fresh wracking sobs.

"Suki," Zuko said quietly, his shoulders slumping as Katara confirmed his new guess by nodding into his chest. He turned his head to give new orders, just in time to see Toph launch herself into the air, away from him, and towards the bridge, now barely visible in the sinking mist.

"Colonel Matsu," Zuko said, "prepare the troops to receive the healers. We will be making camp here."

"Yes, sir," Haki said quietly, a truly solemn look on his face as he saluted.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

She looked strangely peaceful there, lying in the mud, just east of the river Kyokai.

The fan of blood from the spear wound under her sternum blended into the dark-green of her Kyoshi uniform far too easily.

Zuko, in that quiet solemn place where grief existed for him, supposed that that was on purpose. A visibly wounded soldier was a detriment to morale after all.

And it was easier to remain stoic and standing upright when he thought of Suki, bright-eyed, skilled, smart and accomplished warrior that she had been, as simply another casualty.

Instead of the friend she had become.

Sokka was the one who looked like a corpse, far paler than anyone as dark-complected as he was had any right to look. He had collapsed onto his knees at Suki's side, tears silently running down a face that had already exhausted every bit of anguish. The two of them were surrounded by a ring of living Kyoshi warriors who looked as somber as one could with as much face paint as they wore. Somehow desperately formal-looking, despite the fact that all of them were nearly coated in blood and mud of differing proportions.

Katara stood at Zuko's side, one arm around him for support, looking as drained as she might have had she already spent a day and a night both bending and weeping. Hakoda stood off to Zuko's left, a small gash at his temple still trickling blood into the creases of his face, as he stared at his son in a combination of misery and remembrance.

A man watching his younger self about to make the same mistakes.

In the middle distance, looming out of the still fading mist like silent mountains, stood a small contingent of earth samurai clad in the deep green-blue of the Crab.

There was no sound in the misty morning air save the somewhat ragged breathing of many still in tears.

The first sound to truly break the stillness was the creak of armor as Lord Toritaka, arms still at his sides, bowed deeply in Suki's direction and, followed by his retainers, held that pose for a long moment.

"I would be honored to conduct the right myself," Toritaka said, his voice low, formal, and just as deep and basso as one would expect from a person who was seven feet tall.

One of the Kyoshi warriors, Suki's second Zuko believed, nodded in acquiescence, and as though it had been planned the circle of face-painted warriors broke apart, backing away from Sokka and the body as one.

Sokka blinked, seeming lost for a moment as he glanced around himself. He finally hauled himself to his feet with a strange look of befuddlement on his face, the look of a man on the brink of solving a riddle that had been in his mind all day.

He looked down at the corpse of his lover, then up to the sky for a moment.

"Never again," he said with a nod, so quietly that had the field not been utterly still Zuko might not have heard it. Then he strode away from the body, taking a position next to his father who still watched him with the look of a man watching a boat-collision; horrified, but unable to do anything but watch.

Lord Toritaka stepped forward, took a stance, and with surprisingly few kata he sank Suki's still peaceful looking body into the ground. In its place, in the same deep brown of the riverbank, emerged a wide stone plinth with the curving roof of a pagoda.

With a single final thrusting gesture the image of the fans of Kyoshi appeared, recessed into the stone.

"May she defend the land, even in death," Mitsu said, ending the right.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"You need to go talk to him," Katara said quietly, her grey-blue eyes enormous as they seemed to swallow him, capturing him, and refusing to be ignored.

"I… I do not know what I could possibly say to him, Katara. I am not… _You_ are the one who is good at-"

"I'm his sister. He won't… hear anything I say right now. The last time… with Yue… All he really needed was time… but-"

"Then we should give him time. Trying to force recovery… _Ash_ , you are the one who said that-"

"I know what I said!" Katara snapped. "But I don't think that's going to cut it this time. He's… just… I don't know. I… I'm just…"

"Worried about him. I am too. But I doubt that I have the words to make him-"

"Sir?" Zuko cut off as Uesugi Rin poked his head into the tent that Zuko and Katara had been sharing since Ba Sing Se. Zuko bit off the angry reprimand that had been halfway out of his mouth, the man knew him better than almost anyone else, and he would never have interrupted without legitimate cause. Katara, who also knew Rin to be of sound judgement gave Zuko a nod, releasing him to deal with whatever latest disaster it was that had Rin looking perceptibly worried.

 _It's never just ONE thing at a time, is it?_ Zuko thought to himself as the two of them, with a quickened pace, moved through the camp.

As they walked in silence, Zuko again noted how remarkably unaffected the camp seemed to be. Certainly, _he_ had lost someone important to him, someone who was not just a name on a roster, but one who was actually a friend.

But to the rest of the legion she was simply another casualty. One they all may have known of but, still, just another casualty added to the continually growing funeral pyre.

Zuko thought on that, on the relative value of a single life, as Rin led him onwards, toward the gradually increasing volume of powerful earthbending.

Towards a visibly irate Toph, surrounded by several platoon's worth of intermittently injured soldiers.

"Come on you hog-chicken-shits!" she roared, rocking back and forth slightly. "Yooou've gotta be tougher than that if you want to- to- survive."

 _Oh, ash._

"Ma'am?" Uesugi Ren said, caution thick in his voice, "maybe we ought to… take another break? Get the healers for-"

"You lot think you're worth fucking healing?!" Toph snapped, her head swiveling back and forth oddly. "You shit-stains aren't worth the fucking mud in this puddle! You- you- you can't even beat a fucking teenager! I've seen better earthbending from fucking badger-fucking-frogs!"

"Ma'am," Ren tried again, glancing at his brother and Zuko in something akin to panic, "you're a bit… uh…"

"You're not tough enough!" Toph continued, ignoring the former earth-rumbler in favor of continuing to shout. "I've been to- to- to- soft on you. Well that'ss about to fucking change! I'm going to start breaking _bones_ until you lily-livered fucks figure out-"

"Colonel. Beifong!" Zuko barked, drawing all eyes to him and away from Toph.

Toph started, her odd swaying cutting off as she jolted in surprise.

"I require a word, Colonel," Zuko continued, now projecting complete unconcern.

"Not right now, Sparking," Toph said, shaking her head as though shaking off an irritating bug. "I've got tooooo many asses to kick."

Zuko nodded sagely, as though considering the seeming importance of those words.

"You are all released for the night," Zuko said, making eye contact with as many of the soldiers as he could. "Curfew has been suspended. Those of you who require it will report to the healing tents. NOW."

He finished the statement with a bark, and almost instantly, in the near-magical manner of armies everywhere, the rank and file soldiers disappeared out of view almost before Toph had a chance to squawk a protest.

"Now, there is only _one_ ass _,_ " Zuko said to the almost empty training ring. He walked into the muddy ring himself, sniffing at the air and almost immediately confirming his initial suspicion.

"You are drunk," Zuko said, managing to squelch the impulse to immediately interrogate Toph as to who _exactly_ had given her alcohol and which of their body parts they would mind missing the least.

"Nooooo I'm not," Toph crooned, her previous anger seemingly evaporated.

"No?" Zuko asked flatly. In a blur he kicked out, sweeping Toph's legs out from under her. She landed flat on her back in the mud with another squawk and a squelch.

"Ow!"

"You are drunk," Zuko repeated, resting on his haunches at her side.

"Ok… maybe a little bit," Toph said seeming amused.

"I… understand what you are feeling. But at _no_ point should you be taking it out on your soldiers. They are your responsibility and you-"

"You don't know ANYTHING about what I'm feeling, you baby-burning fuckwit!" Toph snarled, drunken rage returning in a flash.

Zuko paused for a moment, letting the insult slide off of him before speaking again.

"I loved Suki too. I had assumed that she would be my sister one day. There is no shame in this grief."

"FUCK you, AND the high-ostrich-horse you rode in on! If I needed this fucking touchy-feely shit, I'd- I'd-"

"Be lying in the mud, so drunk that you are barely able to sense where I am?" Zuko said, a hint of a snarl creeping into his voice. "You listen to _me,_ Beifong Toph. We both know that I, that _neither of us,_ are any good at this whaleshit. If you do not want to _share_ , that is acceptable, but if you allow this to influence your ability to command then I will _relieve you._ "

"Fuck. You."

"I will have no choice."

"FUCK you."

"I will find you a _desk job_ , and some adjutants to _help you_ with your _paperwork._ "

"FUCK YOU!"

Zuko remained entirely impassive as Toph screamed, and waited until she had regained her breath before continuing.

"Sokka needs us to be strong," he said quietly.

And then, to Zuko's great shock, Toph's face broke down into a silent sobbing contortion of anguish.

 _Oh… ash. Why do I even_ try _to be good? I'm really really bad at it!_

"This is- is- all my fault," Toph croaked, curling up in the mud, choking the quiet words out between hiccups.

"… That is ridiculous," Zuko said after a moment. "The enemy killed Suki. You were busy saving all our lives."

"I should have- have- told her. But I didn't. I _didn't_ and now…"

"…Told her what?"

"Told her that she was- was- going to get herself killed if she kept taking so many risks."

"Toph," Zuko said with a shake of his head, "that is purely ridiculous. You cannot hold yourself responsible for-"

"But I didn't," Toph continued over top of him, "I didn't because I… I…" she paused for a moment gathering herself and fighting to bring her breathing back under control. "I wanted her gone," she finished quietly, misery now etched into every line on her sixteen-year-old face.

Zuko, utterly stunned, rocked back on his heels, and sat down in the mud.

"I wanted her gone… so I didn't say anything," Toph continued, her voice now calm and flat with resignation. "But now she _is_ and he's… he's broken. His heart is _broken_ and… I _heard it._ Heard it break. All because I…" she trailed away again, now seeming calmer, a prisoner headed to the gallows, resigned to their fate.

"… Do you know how I figured out the lightning kata?" Zuko asked after a long moment.

"I know I don't like the way you sound when you do it," Toph said quietly.

"Good," Zuko said with a nod, "because it is hate. Firebending is about life, emotion, and lightning… is hate. REAL hate. You have to be… really focused to truly hate something. It is a lot harder than you'd think. There's no room for doubt, concern, or anything like that."

Toph's sightless eyes peered up at the darkening sky in confusion, but she remained silent, still listening.

"I thought that, when I figured that out, that it was my father. That I could hate him and that _that_ was what had finally made it work. If there was one person in the world who really deserved to be hated like that, it was him. But it wasn't. It wasn't my father at all."

Zuko took a deep breath and exhaled gathering himself.

"When I went home, after I betrayed Katara, my father told me that I had… redeemed myself. He said that he was proud of me, he called me his son. And it felt… good. Really good. It was good that I was finally… valued." Zuko reached down and took Toph's unresisting hand in his own. "It _still_ feels good," he said quietly, and Toph's head snapped to the side in her version of a stare.

"And I _hate_ that," Zuko continued, even now fighting against that fury that could, even now, so easily slip its bonds. "I _hate_ that, after everything that bastard has done, to me, to my sister, my uncle, my country… that after all of that I could still, somewhere in here-" he tapped his chest "-want his approval. "I _hate_ that."

He paused a moment, burying the searing fury back into the pits of his heart.

"I think the point I'm trying to make here is that… _everyone_ has something about themselves that they don't like. Terrible little dark impulses that are completely opposite to how we think of ourselves. That is… normal, I think, and not entirely within our control." He gave Toph's hand another squeeze. "But you, Beifong Toph, if you wanted Suki gone, _really_ wanted her gone, you would have taken her outside of camp and _buried_ her. She was a brilliant warrior, but there was no way she could have stopped you. You are feeling guilt that she's gone? That you didn't save her? Well so are we all. _I_ made the plan that she volunteered for. Katara is the one who took her to the place that would be her grave. Sokka _invented_ the parachute that she rode to the ground." Zuko shook his head. "So, I think, the fact that you are in love with Sokka, and would rather that he was with you instead of with somebody else, is a bit of a leap in terms of personal responsibility."

"But… I didn't-"

"Tell her something that she already knew? She was not an idiot, Toph. She knew that this, all of this, is a deadly business. That any battle could be her last. She was… an honorable warrior. She knew."

Toph's face bent into a contemplative one, still heavily tinged with sorrow.

"How do you deal with it?" she asked. "Deal with hating yourself, even a little bit?"

"By using it. The hate lets me know that, that part of me, the part that thinks those awful things, it is not the _real_ me. That it's just the darker places in my soul… casting shadows on my heart."

"…That sounds like fucking poetry," Toph said with a small huff, heaving herself into a sitting position. "Better write that one down, you could be _famous_ one day."

"Doubtful," Zuko said. And then with a grunt he hauled himself, and Toph, back to their feet.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Under any normal circumstance, Zuko was fond of the sound of a sharpening stone on steel.

It was a calming, ringing, sound that had always symbolized dedication and preparedness, two things that he had always been taught to value.

But in the current circumstance… when Sokka was its source, running a sharpening stone down the length of his jian-sword, his face lit by flickering firelight and still spattered with the mud and blood of the battlefield…

That sound was the hiss of a serpent, sibilant and full of venom.

A serpent that did not stop its song when Zuko sat down next to Sokka on the log he was using for a bench.

The silence between the two men hung heavy, underlain and made more terrible by that hissing song, and neither acknowledging the other's presence for several long moments.

"…There is a term, in the oldest language of the Fire-Nation," Zuko said eventually, his quiet rasping voice at odds with the hiss of stone on steel. " _Shi nozomu mono._ It means, roughly, 'those who seek death.'" His eye left the fire in front of them both and flicked to Sokka. "Their _own_ death." There was another long pause as Zuko, his eye back on the campfire, gathered himself for this conversation. "In times of conflict, it often was, and _is_ , still considered better for those who have dishonored themselves to spend their lives in battle, rather than simply to fall on their swords. In many battles, throughout history, even a single company of Deathseekers was enough to turn the entire tide of battle, so fierce were they in their desire to cleanse themselves of their dishonor… and their lives."

The hiss of stone on steel trailed away slowly, although Sokka's eyes remained looking straight ahead, unfocused on the middle distance.

"Do you believe you have lost your honor, Shinjo Sokka?" Zuko asked quietly.

Sokka slowly turned his head, his face still horribly expressionless, to actually look at Zuko.

"One of the things I have learned in recent years is that honor is internal," Zuko continued, still looking into the fire. "Only _you_ can be the judge of your own honor. So I will not attempt to tell you where your honor truly lies." He exhaled in a sigh. "But I _do_ know grief. I do know something of that dark silence that currently resides in your mind. And I know how easily grief can make us… do things we might not otherwise… make us blame _ourselves_ for things that are _not_ our fault." Zuko turned his head and affixed his single yellow eye on Sokka's blue pair. "If you ask it of me, Shinjo Sokka, I will help you seek your death."

There was another long silence as the two samurai looked at each other, both as still as statues.

"However," Zuko said breaking the stillness, his voice slightly louder than before, "I do not think you have lost your honor. I do not think that anyone but the enemy is best served by your death, and I do not think that Suki…" Zuko trailed away with a growl as Sokka turned away to look back at the campfire. "Ash. I am not good at this sort of thing," he continued. "We both know that. But… your sister is worried for you, and I…" Zuko shook his head again and, with a grunt of irritation, rose to his feet to stalk away, certain that he'd botched the whole thing.

"Do you think I'm cursed?" Sokka asked quietly, making Zuko draw up short.

"Cursed?" Zuko said with a blink of confusion as he looked back down at the still seated man in mud-stained purple.

"Cursed," Sokka said simply now looking down at the jian-sword and sharpening stone still in his hands.

"How… what makes you think that…"

"It's just… this is twice now. Two times that I've been in love with a woman and… twice that I've asked her to marry me."

 _Oh… ash and bone._

"And then, within the month… dead," Sokka said with a sort of quiet finality.

"Sokka…" Zuko began, his mind now whirling along new paths that he could not have even considered without this information. "Suki and… Yue's deaths were great tragedies… but I do not think that that means-"

"Your future is full of struggle and anguish. Most of it, self-inflicted," Sokka said, a calm but musing look back on his face again. "A fortuneteller told me that once. I just brushed it off, because… well, I don't really believe in that sort of thing. I prefer rational explanations. But…" he paused, lifting the point of his sword out of the dirt to examine the edge of the dark-grey metal in the firelight. "But when the evidence suggests something…"

Zuko, who, like most of his people, did have something of a superstitious streak, sat back down next to Sokka to contemplate the matter.

"Normally," he began, "I would say that a pattern is not truly established until a third instance, but-"

"Same. But I'm not willing to test that theory."

"Indeed," Zuko said with a nod. "How do you suppose it might have happened?"

Sokka simply shrugged still examining his sword, turning it back and forth in the firelight.

"Perhaps the shugenja could be consulted? There must be some sort of purification ritual that might-"

"Nah. I really don't believe in that either," Sokka said. "I'd rather just deal with it myself." He nodded approvingly to his sword and to himself. "I'll just swear to never fall in love again."

Zuko mused over this for a long moment.

"I am not certain that is something you can swear to," he said aloud. "I can say that, from my own experience, love is not something you have complete control over. It comes, sudden and mysterious, and at very inconvenient times."

"…True enough," Sokka said after a moment. "How about if I just swear to never ask another girl to marry me?"

"That… well, that might work," Zuko said with a nod. "Your sister will be furious of course. But-"

"Not if you don't tell her she won't be."

"Again, I do not know if I can promise that. She can be… persistent," Zuko said with an apologetic grimace. "But… I think she will be alright if I can assure her that you are not… not seeking to harm yourself."

"No, don't worry about that," Sokka said with a grin that was far less mirthful and far more vengeful than it had been only a day ago. "I intend to see this through to the end." He glanced up at the sky where the moon now shown through the clouds, a few days past full, and his smile lost a touch of its ferocity. "Besides, if I tried that, then the _both_ of them would be pissed. Not even my spirit would survive that."

With that Sokka quickly slid the palm of his left hand down the edge of his sword and offered his bloodied hand to Zuko.

Zuko, with a single fluid motion, drew his wakizashi from its scabbard and across his own left palm and grasped Sokka's outstretched hand.

"Never again," Sokka said quietly, his eyes locked on Zuko's.

"So witnessed," Zuko said with a nod, "so bound."

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **Well, well, well, what have we here? Another chapter? Amazing! And one that ended up being MUCH longer than I had originally thought.**

 **.**

 **It is funny to me that this bad boy, about 10k words, is now the "normal" in my brain for chapter length, when the entire first fic in this monstrosity was only 4 times that.**

 **.**

 **But, I hope that I am a better writer now than I was then, and looking back on this chapter I don't know what, if anything I would have cut.**

 **.**

 **So, hopefully you are all not to mad at me for murdering a character and tormenting a few others. I won't say it HAD to happen, but in war there will be loss. I'll discuss it in depth later, in the entirely supplementary….**

 **.**

 **MURDER-BITS** **(sorry I couldn't resist)**

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 **Time Jump:** **So, I hope I made it clear but there is a bit of a time jump here. Just pointing that out so that, when I do it again, next chapter, nobody is totally caught off guard. I put those damned timestamps in there for a REASON!**

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 **Nagashino:** **The battle presented here is inspired greatly by the battle of Nagashino, in which Takeda Katsuyori fought against the Oda Nobunaga (of much fame) and Tokugawa Ieyasu (the future Shogun.) I have replaced the firearms with firebending, and changed some of the details, but if you are a history person, I highly recommend giving the battle a quick wiki dive. One of those HUGELY important battles that led to the formation of the Tokugawa shogunate and, if you like the total war video game series, a whole lot of fun.**

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 **I admit I may be weird in my enjoyment of that sort of thing, but (/shrug)**

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 **Lightning:** **So I toyed with giving Zuko lightning for a long time. I wasn't sure if I wanted to keep it out of his hands as a sort of contrast between himself and his sister. What really sold me on it (other than the fact that it made for some interesting writing) was the fact that Iroh could do it. It's very much, I think, a sign of maturity for Zuko, and for anyone, to be able to find something dark, or bad, about themselves, acknowledge it, and try to use it for good.**

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 **As usual, I hope it worked. And as usual, I regret nothing.**

 **.**

 **The Death of Suzuki Suki:** **Ok, maybe a little regret. I love Suki, I think you guys might have gathered that from my version of the boiling rock. Yes, this is awful. Yes I feel a smidge guilty for doing this to Sokka, again. But, it needed doing.**

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 **War. Has. A. Cost.**

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 **People die. People you would rather have not had die. Sometimes they die in utterly pointless and ignoble ways, off-camera. Even the greatest of fighters, which Suki assuredly was, will go down if they get a bad break. This is one of the tactical weakness to the paratroop, they can't land in a defensive formation, and so the likelihood of a single soldier getting themselves into a situation they can't get out of increases dramatically. The whole point of Suki being the first to die was not because she was a non-bender, or a girl, or anything like that. In fact, the fact that she WAS a badass makes this particular lesson more poignant.**

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 **War does not care who you are. War takes from you indiscriminately.**

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 **I will miss Suki.**

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 **Survivor's Guilt:** **A lot of this chapter evolved out of this concept. A person of significance in our lives dies; how do we deal with it? We blame ourselves needlessly, we worry about personal responsibilities, we make somewhat irrational choices and decision. Toph and Sokka have a lot in common here in this chapter. Toph tries to keep up a good stoic façade but eventually breaks down in the fact of alcohol and older-brother/father-figure Zuko. Sokka is beginning to wonder whether Aunt Wu (the fortuneteller he quotes) was actually on to something. It makes him doubt his normal pragmatic rationality.**

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 **But all of that is put into contrast for Zuko our protagonist (and YOU faithful reader) by the seeming ambivalence of the rest of the camp.**

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 **People die. The world moves on.**

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 **It's not that they wouldn't care if they knew, but they don't.**

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 **And so the world moves on.**

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 **FFN ONLY NOTE:** **Yes it's true this note is ONLY for you, my loyal fanfic dot net folks!**

 **.**

 **Unfortunately it is bad news.**

 **.**

 **FFN it seems does not support the strikethrough command (this would appear as a single line that passes through the middle of a word or words.) And so, my latest published fic "The Trials and Tribulations of Shinjo Katara" will not be appearing here as I make great and serious use of the aforementioned strikethrough command. It IS available on AO3 (same username) if you wish to have a gander at the EXACT same story, but told from Katara's perspective.**

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 **If anyone knows some method that allows me to use strikethrough here please send me a PM and make me a happy author.**

 **.**

 **Otherwise I am terribly sorry for the inconvenience.**

 **.**

 **Anyway, thanks again for reading, and for suffering through a too long author's note.**

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 **Have a good one!**

 **.**

 **.**

 **NEXT TIME on a very special "Avatar: The Last Dragon"...**

 **War continues to be Hell.**

 **TUNE IN. New Zuko time, Same Zuko channel!**

 **Original post date: 23 May 2020**


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